Using xcopy to copy files from several directories to one directory

Question

Is it possible to use xcopy to copy files from several directories into one directory using only one xcopy command?

Assuming that I have the directory tree

root\Source\Sub1\Sub2

I want to copy all .xml files from the directory root\Source including sub folder to root\Destination. I don't want to copy the folder structure, just the files.

Answer 1

You don't need xcopy for that. You can get a listing of all the files you want and perform the copy that way.

For example in windows xp command prompt:

for /f "delims==" %k in ('dir c:\source\*.xml /s /b') do copy "%k" x:\destination\

The /s goes into all subdirectories and the /b lists only the files name and path. Each file inturn is assigned to the %k variable, then the copy command copies the file to the destination. The only trick is making sure the destination is not part of the source.

Answer 2

As DandDI said, you don't need xcopy. for statement helps much. However, you don't need to state process outcome of dir command as well, this command helps better

for /R c:\source %f in (*.xml) do copy %f x:\destination\

By the way, when you use it from a batch file, you need to add spare % in front of variable %f hence your command line should be;

for /R c:\source %%f in (*.xml) do copy %%f x:\destination\

when you use it within a batch

Answer 3

Thanks. That worked fine - just not from msbuild... Trying to get this to work from an exec command in msbuild.

<Exec WorkingDirectory="$(SolutionRoot)" Command="for /f &quot;delims==&quot; %k in ('dir *.targets /s /b') do copy &quot;%k&quot; &quot;$(MSBuildExtensionsPath)\Microsoft\VisualStudio\TeamBuild&quot;" />

Gets the error:

for /f "delims==" %k in ('dir *.targets /s /b') do copy "%k" "C:\Program Files (x86)\MSBuild\Microsoft\VisualStudio\TeamBuild" k" "C:\Program was unexpected at this time.

Any suggestions?