os.rename returning winerror 2

Question

I'm trying to a script to rename to the date that it was sent as an email(which is the first part of the script but doesn't matter for this part) then to rename, and sort it into a 'Complete' folder. This is what my code looks like

Edit - I have all the imported stuff way up at the top and i didnt show it, but i assume i have the right stuff imported if you would like to see just ask

dir5 = "C:\\Users\\Michael D\\Documents\\Test\\AmLit"
dir6 = "C:\\Users\\Michael D\\Documents\\Test\\History"
dir7 = "C:\\Users\\Michael D\\Documents\\Test\\MultiLit"
dir8 = "C:\\Users\\Michael D\\Documents\\Test\\Physics"
dir5_final = "C:\\Users\\Michael D\\Documents\\TestMove\\AmLit"
dir6_final = "C:\\Users\\Michael D\\Documents\\TestMove\\History"
dir7_final = "C:\\Users\\Michael D\\Documents\\TestMove\\MultiLit"
dir8_final = "C:\\Users\\Michael D\\Documents\\TestMove\\Physics"


now = datetime.datetime.now()
now1 = (str(now.day) + '/' + str(now.month) + '/' + str(now.year))

dir5_files = os.listdir(dir5)
dir6_files = os.listdir(dir6)
dir7_files = os.listdir(dir7)
dir8_files = os.listdir(dir8)

for f in dir5_files:
    if (f.startswith("A") or f.startswith("a")):
        os.rename(f, now1 + " " + f)

but i keep getting this error

 RESTART: C:/Users/Michael D/Documents/Coding/Schoolwork Email/Email Sender Beta 1.7.21.9.16.py 
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "C:/Users/Michael D/Documents/Coding/Schoolwork Email/Email Sender Beta 1.7.21.9.16.py", line 148, in <module>
    os.rename(f, now1 + " " + f)
FileNotFoundError: [WinError 2] The system cannot find the file specified: 'A Test.txt' -> '21/9/2016 A Test.txt'

any thoughts as to what I'm doing wrong?

Answer 1

2 errors:

1. You are not in the current directory

2. You just cannot have slashes in the names. The filesystem won't allow it as it is (alternately) used to separate path parts.

First, generate the date directly with underscores:

now1 = (str(now.day) + '_' + str(now.month) + '_' + str(now.year))

Then replace

os.rename(f, now1 + " " + f)

by

os.rename(os.path.join(dir5,f), os.path.join(dir5,now1.replace("/","_") + " " + f))

and A Test.txt would be renamed to 21_9_2016 A Test.txt in the directory you specified.