An Introduction to Python Programming for Scientists and Engineers

In Section 10.2.4, we examined copying and deleting files and directories. The tools we used – copytree, rmtree, and move – automatically handled directory trees. For instance, a copy operation using copytree on a directory copies not just the topmost directory but all files and subdirectories underneath the topmost directory, and so on to every file and subdirectory. In the present chapter, we explore how a programming language implements the idea of “do-this-action-over-nested-levels” through the principle of recursion.