How to copy a directory structure but only include certain files (using windows batch files)

Question

As the title says, how can I recursively copy a directory structure but only include some files. E.g given the following directory structure:

folder1
  folder2
    folder3
      data.zip
      info.txt
      abc.xyz
    folder4
    folder5
      data.zip
      somefile.exe
      someotherfile.dll

The files data.zip and info.txt can appear everywhere in the directory structure. How can I copy the full directory structure, but only include files named data.zip and info.txt (all other files should be ignored)?

The resulting directory structure should look like this:

copy_of_folder1
  folder2
    folder3
      data.zip
      info.txt
    folder4
    folder5
      data.zip

Answer 1

You don't mention if it has to be batch only, but if you can use ROBOCOPY, try this:

ROBOCOPY C:\Source C:\Destination data.zip info.txt /E

EDIT: Changed the /S parameter to /E to include empty folders.

Answer 2

If a windows desktop app can help, here it is: PikyBasket - http://www.conceptworld.com/Piky/

Answer 3

XCOPY /S folder1\data.zip copy_of_folder1  
XCOPY /S folder1\info.txt copy_of_folder1

EDIT: If you want to preserve the empty folders (which, on rereading your post, you seem to) use /E instead of /S.

Answer 4

That's only two simple commands, but I wouldn't recommend this, unless the files that you DON'T need to copy are small. That's because this will copy ALL files and then remove the files that are not needed in the copy.

xcopy /E /I folder1 copy_of_folder1
for /F "tokens=1 delims=" %i in ('dir /B /S /A:-D copy_of_files ^| find /V "info.txt" ^| find /V "data.zip"') do del /Q "%i"

Sure, the second command is kind of long, but it works!

Also, this approach doesn't require you to download and install any third party tools (Windows 2000+ BATCH has enough commands for this).

Answer 5

Similar to Paulius' solution, but the files you don't care about are not copied then deleted:

@echo OFF

:: Replace c:\temp with the directory where folder1 resides.
cd c:\temp

:: You can make this more generic by passing in args for the source and destination folders.
for /f "usebackq" %%I in (`dir /b /s /a:-d folder1`) do @echo %%~nxI | find /V "data.zip" | find /v "info.txt" >> exclude_list.txt
xcopy folder1 copy_of_folder1 /EXCLUDE:exclude_list.txt /E /I

Answer 6

I have a similiar situation. What if I wanted a batch to copy the entire folder structure of a directory and move all files in those folders that were modified before 1/1/2008? Is this possible?

Answer 7

An alternate solution that copies one file at a time and does not require ROBOCOPY:

@echo off
setlocal enabledelayedexpansion

set SOURCE_DIR=C:\Source
set DEST_DIR=C:\Destination
set FILENAMES_TO_COPY=data.zip info.txt

for /R "%SOURCE_DIR%" %%F IN (%FILENAMES_TO_COPY%) do (
    if exist "%%F" (
     set FILE_DIR=%%~dpF
     set FILE_INTERMEDIATE_DIR=!FILE_DIR:%SOURCE_DIR%=!
     xcopy /E /I /Y "%%F" "%DEST_DIR%!FILE_INTERMEDIATE_DIR!"
    )
)

The outer for statement generates any possible path combination of subdirectory in SOURCE_DIR and name in FILENAMES_TO_COPY. For each existing file xcopy is invoked. FILE_INTERMEDIATE_DIR holds the file's subdirectory path within SOURCE_DIR which needs to be created in DEST_DIR.