Batch Script command at prompt - windows

This may seem like a stupid question but I have this Simple Script:
#ECHO OFF
XCOPY c:\test c:\backupfolder /m /e
Because there is no folder backupfolder it prompts you if it is a folder or file how using the script to automatically put in The Letter "D" for directory in the prompt
Thanks

When copying to a folder, which is the usual case, add a backslash to the end of the path.
Adding quotes protects the command from spaces etc in the paths.
#ECHO OFF
XCOPY "c:\test\*.*" "c:\backupfolder\" /m /e

The /i switch causes xcopy to assume the destination is a directory as long as there is more than one file to copy.
But to make it work even if copying just one file, you could simply create the directory first:
#echo off
mkdir c:\backupfolder 2>NULL
xcopy /me c:\test c:\backupfolder
The 2>NULL (redirecting standard error to NULL) suppresses the error message that occurs if the directory already exists.

Related

I want to copy a directory excluding one file

I have used the xcopy command with /EXCLUDE switch but for that i have to make another file that contains the list of files to be excluded.
Below is the xcopy command i am using...
xcopy /EXCLUDE:C:\AA\excludedfiles.txt C:\AA d:\Models\Broker\NB\MOTNB0056
/S /E
where excludedfiles.txt contains the name of file that i want to exclude.
C:\AA is source and d:\Models\Broker\NB\MOTNB0056 is destination.
However i don't want to make extra file(excludedfiles.txt) for it. Suggest a command that exclude a file by giving just its path.
XCOPY is deprecated. It has been replaced by ROBOCOPY.
Open a command prompt window an run robocopy /? for help on command ROBOCOPY. In comparison to help of XCOPY output on running xcopy /? it has the option /XF to exclude one or more files specified after this switch and it is even possible to use wildcards.
So the command you might use is:
%SystemRoot%\System32\robocopy.exe C:\AA D:\Models\Broker\NB\MOTNB0056 /E /XF C:\AA\FileToExclude.ext
Some additional notes:
/S means copying with subdirectories, but without empty directories.
/E means copying with subdirectories with including empty directories.
It does not make sense to specify both on the command line.
It is advisable to specify target directory with backslash at end. This makes it clear for ROBOCOPY as well as for XCOPY that the target string specifies a directory and not a file. This is important in case of just a single file is copied as you can read in answer on batch file asks for file or folder. Both commands create the directory tree to target directory if this is necessary on having target directory specified with \ at end.
See Microsoft's documentation on Windows Commands and SS64.com - A-Z index of the Windows CMD command line on searching for a command for a specific file operation from command line or batch file.

Copy folder to current path open in Command Prompt

I'm trying to create a batch file that copies one folder to the current path open in command prompt.
This is the code I have, but it doesn't work.
#echo off
xcopy /s c:\Users\Alexander\Documents\Other d:\%cd%
pause
Over complicating things...
Just use ".", which means current directory, i.e.:
xcopy /s c:\blah\blah .

copying all the elements of a folder into another folder using a loop in batch file

I want to copy all the files of a folder into some other folders using batch script. Say, I have two folders named folder1 and folder2. these two folders are located in C:\Users\xyz . I want to copy the elements of another folder (say, folder3 which is located in C:\Users\abc\def) into these two folders. I have made the following script but nothing is copied. My sample batch file is as follows:
FOR /L %%A IN (1,1,2) DO (
xcopy /s C:\Users\abc\def\folder3 C:\Users\xyz\folder%%A
)
is there anything wrong in the batch file?
xcopy /s C:\Users\abc\def\folder3\*.* C:\Users\xyz\folder%%A\
where *.* is an appropriate filemask and the final \ in the destination name tells cmd that the destination is a directory.
I suggest using this command line in the batch file:
for /L %%A in(1,1,2) do %SystemRoot%\System32\xcopy.exe "C:\Users\abc\def\folder3" "C:\Users\xyz\folder%%A\" /C /G /H /I /K /R /Q /S /Y >nul
I enclosed both directory paths in double quotes in case of real paths contain 1 or more spaces or other special characters which require double quotes. The last paragraph on last help page output by running in a command prompt window cmd /? outputs on which characters in a directory/file name double quotes are required around the complete directory/file name.
The target path ends with a backslash to make it clear for console application xcopy that the target is a directory and not a file. Together with the redundant /I the target directory is created if not existing already.
For details on the options used on xcopy open a command prompt window and run xcopy /?. This outputs the help for this console application in the command prompt window. On Windows running a command or console application with /? as parameter outputs in general the help for the command/application.
Note: The copying from one user profile directory to another user profile directory requires local administrator privileges. Each user profile directory is by default protected for exclusive usage of the owning user. Therefore I suggest to open a command prompt window and execute in this window:
for /L %A in(1,1,2) do %SystemRoot%\System32\xcopy.exe "C:\Users\abc\def\folder3" "C:\Users\xyz\folder%A\" /C /G /H /I /K /R /S /Y
You can see if that works with just %A as required on command line instead of %%A as required in batch files and without /Q (quiet copying) and without >nul (redirection of success messages to device NUL to suppress them). Or when it does not work, you can see why it does not work as the error message can be viewed on running a command or a batch file from within a command prompt window instead of double clicking on a batch file because the console window keeps open.

Windows cmd shell xcopy to network directory doesn't work

Im trying to make a batch file that will copy all new files and folders from a source folder to an network directory. All the new subdirectories and new files should be copied (backup).
My code:
xcopy "C:\Source" "T:\Backup" /d/i/s/q
(/d for only new files, /i because source is a dir, /s for all the subdirs and files, /q just to supress the copy text)
Source contains both subdirectories and files (.txt).
The first run it copies Everything as it should. When I add a new .txt file to one of the existing subdirectories and run it again I get the message:
"An error occured when the file The directory is not empty. was being created.
The folder "T:\Backup" could not be created.
0 files copied.
(Translated from Swedish so not 100% original)
The thing is when I try this command to a local source like e.g. "C:\test" and do the same procedure it works.
Anyone who can understand why this doesn't work for the network drive?
Should I try Another command such as robocopy?
Skip xcopy and use robocopy with the /E flag instead. It's built into all recent versions of Windows. Free download for XP.
Example:
robocopy c:\source T:\backup /E
That will copy all the files in the "source" folder to the "backup" folder that haven't been copied already.
And if you don't want to have the output shown on the console (equivalent to the /Q option in xcopy):
robocopy c:\source T:\backup /E /LOG:nul
Robocopy must be better because it should create directories with the \E switch. No overwrites for files, just adds a file with extra letters or extension <> command. Still must defrag.
XCOPY "DRIVE LETTER:\windows.old\USERS" "\computername\D\NAME\" /D /E /C /R /I /K /Y /f

Copy a file to all folders batch file?

I need copy credits.jpg from C:\Users\meotimdihia\Desktop\credits.jpg to D:\Software\destinationfolder and all subfolders
I read many and i write
/R "D:\Software\destinationfolder" %%I IN (.) DO COPY "C:\Users\meotimdihia\Desktop\credits.jpg" "%%I\credits.jpg"
then i save file saveall.bat but i run it , it dont work at all.
help me write 1 bat
Give this a try:
for /r "D:\Software\destinationfolder" %i in (.) do #copy "C:\Users\meotimdihia\Desktop\credits.jpg" "%i"
Of course, if it's to go into a batch file, double the '%'.
This was the first search I found on google for batch file copy file to all subfolders.
Here's a way with xcopy.
There's also robocopy but that would be too powerful for a simple task like this. (I've used that for entire drive backups because it can use multi-threading)
But, let us focus on xcopy.
This example is for saving to a file with the extension .bat. Just drop the additional % where there is two if running directly on the command line.
cd "D:\Software\destinationfolder"
for /r /d %%I in (*) do xcopy "C:\temp\file.ext" "%%~fsI" /H /K
cd "D:\Software\destinationfolder" change directory to the folder you want to copy the file to. Wrap this in quotes if the path has whitespaces.
the for loop - See help here. Or type for /? in a command prompt.
/r - Loop through files (recurse subfolders)
/d - Loop through several folders
%%I - %%parameter: A replaceable parameter
xcopy - Type xcopy /? in the command line for lots of help. You may need to press Enter to read the entire help on this.
C:\temp\file.ext - The file you want to copy
"%%~fsI" - Expands %%I to a full pathname with short names only
/H - Copies files with hidden and system file attributes. By default, xcopy does not copy hidden or system files
/K - Copies files and retains the read-only attribute on Destination files if present on the Source files. By default, xcopy removes the read-only attribute.
The last two parameters are just examples if you're having trouble with any read-only files and will retain the most important file properties.
Lots more xcopy parameters here
xcopy examples here
Just for completeness. This example below will copy the same file in each folder of the current directory and not any sub-folders. Just the /r option is removed for it to behave like this.
for /d %%I in (*) do xcopy "C:\temp\file.ext" "%%~fsI" /H /K
If you can use it: Here is a PowerShell solution (PowerShell is integrated in Windows 7 and available from XP and up):
$file = "C:\...\yourfile.txt"
$dir = "C:\...\YourFolder"
#Store in sub directories
dir $dir -recurse | % {copy $file -destination $_.FullName}
#Store in the directory
copy $file -destination $dir
I'm pretty sure that the last line can be integrated in dir ... but I'm not sure how (I do not use PowerShell very often).

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