File and Folder Automation Cheat Sheet

This page contains a condensed overview of automating file and folder tasks in Python. It covers building paths with pathlib, listing and globbing files, reading and writing text, creating and deleting, copying and moving with shutil, file metadata, archiving with zipfile, and ready-to-adapt recipes for renaming and tidying folders. You can also download the information as a printable cheat sheet:

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Practice with hands-on coding exercises, quizzes, and guided learning paths. Not sure where to begin? Start here.

New to automating files with Python?

Paths With pathlib

Build paths with /; it works on every OS
A Path is just a name until you touch the disk

from pathlib import Path

path = Path("reports") / "2026" / "sales.csv"
path.name     # 'sales.csv'
path.stem     # 'sales'
path.suffix   # '.csv'
path.parent   # PosixPath('reports/2026')

Path.cwd()          # Current folder
Path.home()         # Your home folder
path.exists()       # False
path.is_file()      # False
path.is_dir()       # False

Want to go deeper on pathlib?

Listing and Globbing Files

.glob() searches one folder, .rglob() all subfolders
Results come in arbitrary order; wrap them in sorted()
Globs are case-sensitive on Linux and macOS
Path.walk() (3.12+) walks a tree like os.walk()

docs = Path("reports")
for p in sorted(docs.iterdir()):
    print(p.name)

docs.glob("*.txt")      # This folder only
docs.rglob("*.csv")     # Recursive
docs.glob("202?/*.csv") # One subfolder

files = [p for p in docs.iterdir()
         if p.is_file()]
dirs = [p for p in docs.iterdir()
        if p.is_dir()]

Think you can predict what a glob matches?

Reading and Writing Text

Always pass encoding="utf-8"
.write_text() overwrites; open with "a" to append
Loop over the file object to stream big files line by line

p = Path("todo.txt")
p.write_text("Buy milk\n", encoding="utf-8")
p.read_text(encoding="utf-8")
# 'Buy milk\n'

with p.open("a", encoding="utf-8") as f:
    f.write("Walk dog\n")

with p.open(encoding="utf-8") as f:
    for line in f:
        print(line.rstrip())
# Buy milk
# Walk dog

One call or a with block?

Creating and Deleting

Deleting skips the recycle bin: there’s no undo
.rmdir() only removes empty folders
Print what you’d delete before you delete it

folder = Path("reports/2026")
folder.mkdir(parents=True, exist_ok=True)
(folder / "notes.txt").touch()

import shutil

Path("draft.txt").unlink(missing_ok=True)
Path("empty_dir").rmdir()
shutil.rmtree("old_reports")  # Whole tree!

Nervous about deleting the wrong thing?

Free Bonus: Download the File and Folder Automation Cheat Sheet PDF and keep the essentials at hand.

Copying, Moving, and Renaming

copy2() keeps timestamps; copy() doesn’t
copytree() fails if the target folder exists
.rename() may overwrite silently; check .exists() first
Python 3.14+: Path.copy() and Path.move()

shutil.copy2("sales.csv", "backup/")
shutil.copytree("reports", "reports_bak")
shutil.move("report.pdf", "archive/")

p = Path("reports/sales.csv")
p.with_stem("q3")      # reports/q3.csv
p.with_suffix(".txt")  # reports/sales.txt
p.with_name("a.md")    # reports/a.md
p.rename(p.with_stem("q3"))

Think you know when files get overwritten?

File Metadata

.stat() gives size in bytes and times as epoch seconds
st_mtime is the last modification time

from datetime import datetime

info = Path("sales.csv").stat()
info.st_size  # 8 (bytes)
mtime = datetime.fromtimestamp(info.st_mtime)
f"{mtime:%Y-%m-%d %H:%M}"
# '2026-09-29 13:23'

files = [p for p in docs.rglob("*")
         if p.is_file()]
total = sum(p.stat().st_size for p in files)
newest = max(
    files, key=lambda p: p.stat().st_mtime
)

Want to put timestamps to work?

Archiving

make_archive() also does "tar" and "gztar"
Pass ZIP_DEFLATED or zipfile won’t compress
Only extract archives you trust

shutil.make_archive("backup", "zip", "docs")
# '/home/user/backup.zip'
shutil.unpack_archive("backup.zip", "out")

import zipfile

with zipfile.ZipFile(
    "csvs.zip", "w", zipfile.ZIP_DEFLATED
) as zf:
    for p in docs.rglob("*.csv"):
        zf.write(p)

with zipfile.ZipFile("csvs.zip") as zf:
    print(zf.namelist())
    zf.extractall("unzipped")
# ['reports/2026/q1.csv', ...]

Still unsure which archiving tool to reach for?

Recipes: Rename and Tidy

Start with DRY_RUN = True and read the output
Refuse to overwrite: raise if the target exists
sorted() keeps the numbering predictable
list() the folder before you move files out of it
Test on a copy of the folder before the real run
Print or log every change so you can undo a run
Run it on a schedule with cron or Windows Task Scheduler

photos = Path("photos")
DRY_RUN = True
jpgs = sorted(
    p for p in photos.iterdir()
    if p.suffix.lower() in {".jpg", ".jpeg"}
)
for i, p in enumerate(jpgs, start=1):
    new = p.with_name(f"trip_{i:03}.jpg")
    if new.exists():
        raise FileExistsError(new)
    print(f"{p.name} -> {new.name}")
    if not DRY_RUN:
        p.rename(new)
# IMG_2290.jpg -> trip_001.jpg
# IMG_2291.JPG -> trip_002.jpg
# beach.jpeg -> trip_003.jpg

downloads = Path.home() / "Downloads"
for p in list(downloads.iterdir()):
    if p.is_file() and p.suffix:
        ext = p.suffix[1:].lower()
        dest = downloads / ext
        dest.mkdir(exist_ok=True)
        shutil.move(p, dest / p.name)
# Moves a.PDF to pdf/, c.jpg to jpg/

Want to run this on your real Downloads folder?

Ready to go beyond the cheat sheet?

You can download this information as a printable cheat sheet:

Free Bonus: File and Folder Automation Cheat Sheet

Get a File and Folder Automation Cheat Sheet (PDF) and keep pathlib, shutil, and zipfile recipes for renaming, sorting, copying, and archiving files at hand: