Python WindowsError 5 Access Denied

Question

I created this script that will give me a html file of all files of a given directory and i managed to get it just right. Except one thing ... Only on windows i get this WindowsError 5 Access Denied when i try to reach through the C:/ directory.

Here is the source code for my application:

import os 
import hashlib
import platform
import sys
import argparse
import HTML

class Map(object):

    def __init__(self,param):
        self.param_list = param
        self.slash = self.slash_by_os()
        self.result_list = []
        self.os = ""



    def calc_md5(self,file_path):
        hash = hashlib.md5()
        with open(file_path, 'rb') as file_to_check:
            for chunk in iter(lambda: file_to_check.read(4096), ''):    
                hash.update(chunk)

        return hash.hexdigest()


    def slash_by_os(self):
        general_id = platform.system()
        actual_os = ""

        if general_id == "Darwin" or general_id == "darwin":
            actual_os = "UNIX"
        elif general_id == "Linux" or general_id == "linux":
            actual_os = "UNIX"
        elif general_id  == "SunOS":
            actual_os = "UNIX"
        elif general_id == "Windows" or general_id == "windows":
            actual_os = "WIN"
        else:
            actual_os = general_id

        if actual_os == "UNIX":
            return '/'
        elif actual_os == "WIN":
            return '\\'
        else:
            return '/'

        self.os = actual_os

    def what_to_do(self,new_dir):
        act = []
        act.append(new_dir[:-1])
        for param in self.param_list:
            if param == "md5":
                x = self.calc_md5(new_dir[:-1])
                act.append(x)
            elif param == "size":
                x = os.stat(new_dir[:-1]).st_size
                act.append(x)
            elif param == "access":
                x = os.stat(new_dir[:-1]).st_atime
                act.append(x)
            elif param == "modify":
                x = os.stat(new_dir[:-1]).st_mtime
                act.append(x)
            elif param == "creation":
                    x = os.stat(new_dir[:-1]).st_ctime
                    act.append(x)   

        return act

    def list_of_files(self ,dir_name ,traversed = [], results = []): 

        dirs = os.listdir(dir_name)
        if dirs:
            for f in dirs:
                new_dir = dir_name + f + self.slash
                if os.path.isdir(new_dir) and new_dir not in traversed:
                    traversed.append(new_dir)
                    self.list_of_files(new_dir, traversed, results)
                else:
                    act = self.what_to_do(new_dir)
                    results.append(act)
        self.result_list = results  
        return results



def parse_args():
    desc = "Welcom To dirmap.py 1.0 \n Created DD 2013 RT"
    parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(description=desc)
    parser.add_argument('-p','--path', help='Path To Original Directory', required=True)
    parser.add_argument('-md','--md5', action = 'store_true',help='Show md5 hash of file', required=False)
    parser.add_argument('-s','--size', action = 'store_true', help='Show size of file', required=False)
    parser.add_argument('-a','--access', action = 'store_true',  help='Show access time of file', required=False)
    parser.add_argument('-m','--modify', action = 'store_true', help='Show modification time of file', required=False)
    parser.add_argument('-c','--creation', action = 'store_true', help='Show creation of file', required=False)

    args = vars(parser.parse_args())

    params = []
    for key,value in args.iteritems():
        if value == True:
            params.append(key)

    return args,params



def main():
    args , params = parse_args() 
    dir_path = args['path']
    map = Map(params)
    dir_list = map.list_of_files(dir_path)

    params.insert(0,"path")


    htmlcode_dir = HTML.table(dir_list,header_row=params)
    print htmlcode_dir

main() 

I read a lot about this error but still couldn't manage to fix. This is the traceback :

C:\\Users\\dd>C:\\Users\\dd\\Desktop\\dirmap.py -p C:\\ Traceback (most recent call last): File "C:\\Users\\dd\\Desktop\\dirmap.py", line 136, in main() File "C:\\Users\\dd\\Desktop\\dirmap.py", line 124, in main dir_list = map.list_of_files(dir_path) File "C:\\Users\\dd\\Desktop\\dirmap.py", line 87, in list_of_files self.list_of_files(new_dir, traversed, results) File "C:\\Users\\dd\\Desktop\\dirmap.py", line 81, in list_of_files dirs = os.listdir(dir_name) WindowsError: [Error 5] Access is denied: 'C:/Documents and Settings\\*.*'

Any Help ? Thanks in advanced...

Answer 1

Thanks all but I found that my problem was just permissions issue. When reaching C:\\ I needed to be administrator, and I wasn't. Solved.