Using file system shell methods

- So far in this chapter, we've seen how to create files…and how to get information about files.…Python provides a set of utilities for manipulating files…using the operating system's shell utilities.…And that's what we're going to take a look at…in this example.…So let's start by opening up shell_start.py.…And to use the shell utilities,…I first need to import the Shutil module into my app.…So let's go ahead and do that.…Alright, import Shutil.…

We'll start off by doing something pretty simple.…Let's make a duplicate of an existing file.…Now this example depends on textfile.txt existing.…And if it's not there for you,…it's probably because you didn't do…one of the previous exercises in this chapter.…And you just need to do with the previous exercises…to make sure that this file exists.…First the code uses the path modules exists function…to make sure the file exists,…and then I'm going to use the real path function…to retrieve the path information for the file.…

So I'll make a variable called source…and I'll call path.realpath…