get a copy of a string leaving original intact

[Bell, Kevin]

I'm having trouble with something that seems like it should be simple.

I need to copy a file, say "abc-1.tif" to another directory, but if it's
in there already, I need to transfer it named "abc-2.tif" but I'm going
about it all wrong.

Here's what doesn't work: (I'll add the copy stuff from shutil after
figuring out the basic string manipulation.)


import os

source = r"C:\Source"
target = r"P:\Target"

files = os.listdir(source)

for f in files:
    if os.path.isfile(target + "\\" + f):      # if it already exists
        print f + " exists"
        s = f                                  # i'd like a copy to
alter
        s = s.replace("-1", "-2")
        print "Altered it to be " + s
        print source + "\\" + s, target + "\\" + s
    else:
        print f + " IS NOT THERE YET"               
        print source + "\\" + f, target + "\\" + f  # use the original