Python Script to Search and Move Files by Extension with Command-Line Arguments

The tutorial begins by describing a sample file structure: a folder D:\pic1 containing several PNG images (including nested subfolders) and an empty destination folder D:\ABC\pic2 . The goal is to locate all PNG files under D:\pic1 and move them to the destination.

Two functions are defined: search_file(root, target) recursively walks through the directory tree, collects full paths of files whose extension matches target , and handles PermissionError to avoid crashes; move_file(file_list, dest) iterates over the collected paths and moves each file to dest using shutil.move , printing any errors.

import os, shutil
file_list = []
# search function
def search_file(root, target):
    for file in os.listdir(root):
        path = root
        try:
            path = path + os.sep + file
            if os.path.isdir(path):
                search_file(path, target)
            else:
                if file.split('.')[-1] == target:
                    file_list.append(path)
        except PermissionError as e:
            print(e)
    return file_list

# move function
def move_file(file_list, dest):
    for file in file_list:
        try:
            shutil.move(file, dest)
        except shutil.Error as e:
            print(e)

# main entry
def main():
    root = "D:\\pic1"
    target = "png"
    dest_dir = "D:\\ABC\\pic2"
    result = search_file(root, target)
    print(result)
    move_file(result, dest_dir)

if __name__ == '__main__':
    main()

After running the script, the PNG files are successfully relocated, as shown by the accompanying screenshots.

The article then extends the script to accept command‑line arguments, allowing users to specify the source directory, file extension, and destination directory when invoking the program.

import sys
import os, shutil
file_list = []
# search function with filename argument
def search_file(root, file_name):
    for file in os.listdir(root):
        path = root
        try:
            path = path + os.sep + file
            if os.path.isdir(path):
                search_file(path, file_name)
            else:
                if file.split('.')[-1] == file_name:
                    file_list.append(path)
        except PermissionError:
            pass
    return file_list

def move_file(file_list, dest):
    for file in file_list:
        shutil.move(file, dest)

def main(argv):
    root = argv[1]
    target = argv[2]
    dest_dir = argv[3]
    result = search_file(root, target)
    print(result)
    move_file(result, dest_dir)

if __name__ == '__main__':
    main(sys.argv)

To execute, open a command prompt, navigate to the script’s directory, and run: python demo.py D:\\pic1 png D:\\ABC\\pic2 . The program prints the list of found files and moves them accordingly, as demonstrated by the final screenshots.