Is there a portable way to copy files in Python?

[Pierre Rouleau]

I have been using os.system() with the operating system 'cp' or copy 
commands when i want to copy files.  I can use os.mkdir() to make 
directories, but i can't find a os.filecopy() or os.path.filecopy() or 
os.copy() or something like that. I must be missing something, since 
such a basic operation is likely to be needed by Python library users.

I could write code that identifies the operating system (the os.path 
way) and use os.system("cp " + source_filename + " " + destination) for 
Unix-type and os.system("copy " + source_filename + " " + destination) 
but i would prefer to use a simple call.

Is this available in the Python library?  If not, why is it not part of 
the library?


Thanks for your time!

Pierre Rouleau