Moving files between folders

Question

I want to copy/paste a file from one folder to another folder in windows using R, but it's not working. My code:

> file.rename(from="C:/Users/msc2/Desktop/rabata.txt",to="C:/Users/msc2/Desktop/Halwa/BADMASHI/SCOP/rabata.tx")

[1] FALSE

Unfortunate

Does the BADMASHI/SCOP folder already exist? – Walsh

There's nothing wrong with your syntax; make sure the source file and dest folder already exist. – Tarim

did you try file.copy instead of file.rename? – Modernize

In addition to the other comments, please state the exact error you got. – Sass

What does file.exists("C:/Users/msc2/Desktop/rabata.txt") tell you? – Quanta

> file.exists("C:/Users/msc2/Desktop/rabata.txt") [1] TRUE – Unfortunate

> file.exists("C:/Users/msc2/Desktop/Halwa/BADMASHI/SCOP") [1] TRUE <br/>but > file.exists("C:/Users/msc2/Desktop/Halwa/BADMASHI/SCOP/") [1] FALSE – Unfortunate

Answer 1

If you wanted a file.rename()-like function that would also create any directories needed to carry out the rename, you could try something like this:

my.file.rename <- function(from, to) {
    todir <- dirname(to)
    if (!isTRUE(file.info(todir)$isdir)) dir.create(todir, recursive=TRUE)
    file.rename(from = from,  to = to)
}

my.file.rename(from = "C:/Users/msc2/Desktop/rabata.txt",
               to = "C:/Users/msc2/Desktop/Halwa/BADMASHI/SCOP/rabata.txt")

Culbert

I am trying to move a file from /tmp to ~, but I am getting a 'Invalid cross-device link', how could I solve this? – Sinistrality

file.rename cannot move files between different mount points. I guess that in your case /tmp and /home are on separate partitions and mount points. In such a case you can either do a copy and then remove the old file, or you can use file_move from the fs package, which seems to be able to move files across mount points. – Comedian

Answer 2

Please just be aware that file.rename will actually delete the file from the "from" folder. If you want to just make a duplicate copy and leave the original in its place, use file.copy instead.

Upsetting

Is file.rename written such that if the process is interrupted, the file won't be lost or corrupted? – Councilor

Answer 3

Use file.copy() or fs::file_copy()

file.copy(from = "path_to_original_file",
          to   = "path_to_move_to")

Then you can remove the original file with file.remove():

file.remove("path_to_original_file")

Update 2021-10-08: you can also use fs::file_copy(). I like {fs} for consistent file and directory management from within R.

Tawanda

Answer 4

You can try the filesstrings library. This option will move the file into a directory. Example code:

First, we create a sample directory and file:

dir.create("My_directory")
file.create("My_file.txt")

Second, we can move My_file.txt into the created directory My_directory:

file.move("My_file.txt", "My_directory")

Omalley

Answer 5

fs::file_move("oldfile.txt", "some/other/existing/directory/newfile.txt")

Yance

Answer 6

You are missing a "t" letter in the second extension. Try this:

file.rename(from="C:/Users/msc2/Desktop/rabata.txt",to="C:/Users/msc2/Desktop/Halwa/BADMASHI/SCOP/rabata.txt").

Additionally, it could be worth it to try the file.copy() function. It is specifically designed to copy files instead of renaming.

Biomedicine