Python3 - urllib.request permission denied

Question

When I try to download a file in python 3.3.2 with the urllib.request.urlretrieve function, I get the following error: ``` Exception in Tkinter callback Traceback (most recent call last): File "C:\Python33\lib	kinter\__init__.py", line 1475, in __call__ return self.func(*args) File "C:\Python33\lib\site-packages\downloader.py", line 17, in startdownload urllib.request.urlretrieve(url, file, reporthook) File "C:\Python33\lib\urllibequest.py", line 191, in urlretrieve tfp = open(filename, 'wb') PermissionError: [Errno 13] Permission denied: '.\tmp' ``` I'm trying to save the file in the dir tmp on my desktop. I'm using the following code in the module "downloader.py": ``` def download(url, file): import urllib.request, tkinter, os, time from tkinter import ttk def reporthook(blocknum, blocksize, totalsize): readsofar = blocknum*blocksize percent = readsofar * 1e2 / totalsize GUI.title(str(int(percent)) + "% done") PROGRESS["value"] = percent PROGRESS.update() def startdownload(): BU…

Accepted Answer

I called my function with the parameter `'.\tmp'` which is a directory and not a single file. You need to specify a filename for urlretrieve to work properly: `'.\tmp\data'` would be allowed as long as there is no folder called "data" inside your tmp folder.

Alternatively, since I tried to download to a temp folder, if you don't specify the second parameter, the file will automatically downloaded to your system-specific temp folder. More information can be found here: https://docs.python.org/3.7/library/urllib.request.html#urllib.request.urlretrieve

Python3 - urllib.request permission denied

Solution

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