shutil.move(): Add ability to use custom copy function to allow to ignore metadata

[desbma]

BPO	19840
Nosy	@bitdancer, @PCManticore, @desbma
Files	shutil.patch issue19840.patch: Fix trailing whitespaces. issue19840_1.patch

^{Note: these values reflect the state of the issue at the time it was migrated and might not reflect the current state.}

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GitHub fields:

assignee = None
closed_at = <Date 2014-06-11.18:41:21.738>
created_at = <Date 2013-11-30.13:05:40.134>
labels = ['type-feature', 'library']
title = 'shutil.move(): Add ability to use custom copy function to allow to ignore metadata'
updated_at = <Date 2014-06-11.18:41:21.736>
user = 'https://github.com/desbma'

bugs.python.org fields:

activity = <Date 2014-06-11.18:41:21.736>
actor = 'r.david.murray'
assignee = 'none'
closed = True
closed_date = <Date 2014-06-11.18:41:21.738>
closer = 'r.david.murray'
components = ['Library (Lib)']
creation = <Date 2013-11-30.13:05:40.134>
creator = 'desbma'
dependencies = []
files = ['32917', '34447', '35554']
hgrepos = []
issue_num = 19840
keywords = ['patch']
message_count = 8.0
messages = ['204807', '204835', '204891', '220142', '220166', '220170', '220296', '220297']
nosy_count = 5.0
nosy_names = ['Arfrever', 'r.david.murray', 'Claudiu.Popa', 'python-dev', 'desbma']
pr_nums = []
priority = 'normal'
resolution = 'fixed'
stage = 'resolved'
status = 'closed'
superseder = None
type = 'enhancement'
url = 'https://bugs.python.org/issue19840'
versions = ['Python 3.5']

[desbma]

shutil.move sometimes fail when the underlining filesystem has limitations.

Here is a part of a stacktrace I'm getting :

File "/usr/local/lib/python3.3/shutil.py", line 534, in move
copy2(src, real_dst)
File "/usr/local/lib/python3.3/shutil.py", line 244, in copy2
copystat(src, dst, follow_symlinks=follow_symlinks)
File "/usr/local/lib/python3.3/shutil.py", line 192, in copystat
lookup("chmod")(dst, mode, follow_symlinks=follow)
OSError: [Errno 38]

This behaviour is expected because shutil.move uses shutil.copy2 under the hood to copy file data and metadata.

However there is no way to tell shutil.move to use shutil.copy and to ignore metadata.

Maybe a new copy_metadata parameter (defaulting to True) or copy_function (like in shutil.copytree) would be an elegant solution?

[bitdancer]

Note that the equivalent linux command generates a warning message but does the move anyway. In other words, this seems like a very reasonable request ;)

[PCManticore]

Hi. Here's a patch which adds copy_function parameter to shutil.move.

[PCManticore]

Any type of feedback will be appreciated.

[bitdancer]

Review comments added. Patch looks good after the doc fixes. We also need a whatsnew entry.

[PCManticore]

Thanks, David. The new version of the patch is attached.

[python-dev]

New changeset 0d61a2a50f9f by R David Murray in branch 'default':
bpo-19840: Add copy_function to shutil.move.
http://hg.python.org/cpython/rev/0d61a2a50f9f

[bitdancer]

Thanks, Claudiu.