Batch Script to copy files from a Text file - windows

Question

I need help with below code as it is executing in root folder only whereas I want the code to look for files within sub folders as well.
for /F "tokens=*" %%A in (documents.txt) do (
copy %%A E:\Destination\
)

Answer 1

I suggest to use this command line in the batch file to copy all files with duplicating directory structure from source to destination directory.
for /F "eol=| delims=" %%I in (documentation.txt) do %SystemRoot%\System32\robocopy.exe "%~dp0." "E:\Destination" "%%~I" /S /NDL /NFL /NJH /NJS
It is assumed that the file documentation.txt contains a list of file names without path.
The command FOR reads one line after the other from file documentation.txt with skipping empty lines. The end of line character is modified from default ; to | using option eol=| to be able copying also files of which name starts unusually with a semicolon. No file name can contain a vertical bar anywhere. The line splitting behavior on spaces/tabs is disabled by using option delims= which defines in this case an empty list of string delimiters. Therefore file names with one or more space even at beginning of file name read from file are assigned unmodified to loop variable I. The option tokens=* removes leading spaces/tabs from the lines read from text file. A file name can begin with one or more spaces although such file names are unusual.
FOR runs for each file name the executable ROBOCOPY with directory of the batch file as source folder path and E:\Destination as destination folder path. ROBOCOPY interprets a \ left of one more \ or " as escape character. For that reason the source and destination folder paths should never end with a backslash as this would result in " being interpreted not as end of folder path, but everything up to next " in command line. For that reason . is appended to %~dp0 because of %~dp0 always expands to batch file folder path ending with a backslash. The dot at end of batch file folder path references the current folder of batch file folder. In other words with batch file stored in C:\Temp the batch file folder can be referenced with C:\Temp\ as done with %~dp0 but not possible with ROBOCOPY or with C:\Temp\. as done with %~dp0. or with just C:\Temp or with C:\Temp\\ as done with %~dp0\ which would also work with ROBOCOPY. See the Microsoft documentation about Naming Files, Paths, and Namespaces for details.
Remove %~dp0 to use current folder as source folder instead of batch file folder.
The ROBOCOPY option /S results in searching in source folder and all its subfolders for the file and copy each found file to destination folder with duplicating the source folder structure in destination folder.
The other ROBOCOPY options are just for not printing list of created directories, list of copied files, header and summary.
Here is an alternative command line for this task copying all files from source directory tree into destination directory without creating subdirectories. So all copied files are finally in specified destination directory.
for /F "eol=| delims=" %%I in (documentation.txt) do for /F "delims=" %%J in ('dir "%~dp0%%~I" /A-D-H /B /S 2^>nul') do copy /B /Y "%%J" "E:\Destination\" >nul
The inner FOR starts for each file name assigned to loop variable I of outer FOR one more command process in background with %ComSpec% /c and the DIR command line appended as additional arguments. So executed is for each file name in documentation.txt with Windows installed into C:\Windows for example:
C:\Windows\System32\cmd.exe /c dir "C:\Batch File Path\Current File Name.ext" /A-D-H /B /S 2>nul
The command DIR executed by second cmd.exe in background searches
in directory of the batch file
and all its subdirectories because of option /S
only for non-hidden files because of option /A-D-H (attribute not directory and not hidden)
with the specified file name
and outputs in bare format because of option /B
just the names of the found files with full path because of option /S.
It is possible that DIR cannot find a file matching these criteria at all in which case it would output an error message to handle STDERR of the background command process. This error message is suppressed by redirecting it with 2>nul to device NUL.
Read the Microsoft article about Using command redirection operators for an explanation of 2>nul. The redirection operator > must be escaped with caret character ^ on FOR command line to be interpreted as literal character when Windows command interpreter processes this command line before executing command FOR which executes the embedded dir command line with using a separate command process started in background.
The inner FOR captures everything written to handle STDOUT of started background command process and processes this output line by line after started cmd.exe terminated itself after finishing execution of DIR.
The inner FOR assigns each full qualified file name to specified loop variable J without any modification because of option delims= and runs next the command COPY to copy that file as binary file to destination directory with automatically overwriting an existing file in destination directory with same file name. The success message output by COPY to handle STDOUT is redirected with >nul to device NUL to suppress it. An error message would be output by COPY. An error occurs if destination directory does not exist, or the destination directory is write-protected, or an existing file with same name is write-protected due to a read-only attribute or file permissions, or source file is opened by an application with sharing read access denied, or an existing destination file is opened by an application with sharing write access denied.
For understanding the used commands and how they work, open a command prompt window, execute there the following commands, and read entirely all help pages displayed for each command very carefully.
call /? ... for an explanation of %~dp0 referencing drive and path of argument 0 which is the full qualified path of the batch file currently processed by cmd.exe.
copy /?
dir /?
for /?
robocopy /?