Python Forum

Hi Everyone

I am trying to change to a directory on a remote server (Both Windows OS, same LAN)

I am doing this but it does not work

directory5 = os.chdir("\\servername\c$\DIR1\DIR2") # Change working directory

I get this error

File "C:\Python\TEST.py", line 3, in <module>
directory5 = open("\\servername\c$\DIR1\DIR2")
FileNotFoundError: [Errno 2] No such file or directory: '\\servername\c$\DIR1\DIR2'

I have looked at using an extra \ and r but can get this to work, please can anyone help?

TIA

The resource you're trying to access is a samba share. First you have to mount the resource or use a library to access direct to samba shares. I guess new servers don't support the old samba protocol. Maybe this module works: https://github.com/jborean93/smbprotocol

Otherwise you can use subprocess to run the net command to mount a samba share.

from subprocess import Popen, PIPE


def mount_share(path, target, persistent=False):
    cmd = ['net', 'use', target, path]
    if persistent:
        cmd.append('/PERSISTENT:YES')
    proc = Popen(cmd, stdout=PIPE, stderr=PIPE)
    retval = proc.wait()
    if retval != 0:
        raise ValueError(proc.stderr.read())

Then you can access with Python the mounted share, just like with normal files.
I check in the function the return value of the net command.
Maybe you want some information if there were an error and why.

Thanks for the help, turns out I just needed to add more backslashes

This worked

\\\\servername\\c$\\DIR1\\DIR2

Thanks again