Xcopy is missing parameters and will not copy files - batch-file

I am trying to make a .bat file that will copy another batch file to the windows start up directory. but XCOPY keeps saying it is missing parameters, can you have a look at my code and see where I'm going wrong.
xcopy "c:\Desktop\CHAOSCOPY.bat" *.* "C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\StartUp\"
xcopy "c:\Desktop\CHAOS V2.bat" *.* "C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\StartUp\"
xcopy "c:\Desktop\CHAOS.bat" *.* "C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\StartUp\"

xcopy syntax is
xcopy sourcedecription destinationdescription
(disregarding any switches)
What is your code supposed to do? Is "c:\Desktop\CHAOSCOPY.bat" a file you want to copy? If so, copy it to where? What has *.* got to do with the matter? It specifies all files with an extension. Do you want to copy all files with an extension from the current directory and also "c:\Desktop\CHAOSCOPY.bat" to the destination? If so, you need two separate xcopy commands. cmd cannot read your mind - it can't tell which of the three parameters is source and which destination.

Related

BAT File to find most recent files based on filename

I need to be able to create a bat script to do 3 things:
Search for multiple specific filenames in a directory.
Find the most recently generated version based on each filename specified.
Copy that most file to a new dir.
I am very new to coding in general, so any assistance would be much appreciated.
So far all I have been able to do is figure out how to copy files from one location to another using the below:
xcopy /s c:\source\differentfilename1.csv d:\target\
xcopy /s c:\source\differentfilename2.txt d:\target
xcopy /s c:\source\differentfilename3.html d:\target
So far I have tried the following and its not copying the files over:
ECHO
CD D:\Data\
MKDIR D:\Data\CopyFilesHere
for /R %file in (Filename1.*) DO XCOPY "%file" D:\Data\CopyFilesHere
for /R %file in (Filename2.*) DO XCOPY "%file" D:\Data\CopyFilesHere
for /R %file in (Filename3.*) DO XCOPY "%file" D:\Data\CopyFilesHere
I have since noted there are subfolders I need to search through also.

Sync two folders using batch file

I want to use a batch file to synchronize 2 folders on Windows, and I'm using the xcopy command like this
xcopy /s /d <Original Folder> <Destination Folder>
It's working perfectly because I just want to overwrite only the modified ones, but I have 1 tiny problem, when I delete a file from the original folder, that file remains in the destination folder when i run the batch file, breaking the synching I want to achieve... I think this can't be done with xcopy, but I don't know which command I should use in case I delete a file in the original folder.
EDIT: This programs is for people who don't understant a lot of PC's so i don't want to install anything in their pc's. Just want a plain batch file to keep the 2 folders synchronized
SOLUTION: Thanks to Kuba Wyrostek I got to this command
robocopy <Original Folder> <Destination Folder> /e /purge
Thank you all for your time
xcopy has no such option. Your alternatives are:
rsync - http://rsync.samba.org
robocopy - http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc733145.aspx
To refine your answer, you can simply do:
robocopy <Original Folder> <Destination Folder> /mir
/mir mirrors a directory tree (equivalent to /e plus /purge).
The XCOPY command for copying the updates from one folder to another is as follows:
C:\> XCOPY C:/SOURCE D:/DESTINATION /E /D /C /Y
The flags used in the above example have the following meanings:
/E causes all folders and sub-folders to be copied
/D causes a DATE comparison to be made, only copying items that are newer than the DESTINATION item. If the DESTINATION is older, or does not contain the file, then it will be copied.
/C tells XCOPY to continue if it encounters an error - typically errors occur with read-only files, or files that have protected permissions
/Y tells XCOPY to suppress prompting you for confirmation, which is necessary if you intend to create an automation script or scheduled task
I know this is old, but I have a question. Can this not be done with the correct xcopy commands.
Folder 1: c:\workingFolder\"contents here"
Folder 2: d:\workingFolderSync\"contents here"
Batch file below
xcopy "c:\workingFolder\*.*" "d:\workingFolderSync\" /i /s /d /y
xcopy "d:\workingFolderSync\*.*" "c:\workingFolder\" /i /s /d /y
pause
( I usually remove the pause after i test and know the batch works. )
But this will only copy contents from the folder to the other if its newer.
Then it looks in the destination folder and copies contents from destination back to source if it is newer. This reproduces what syncing does, except for the in real time monitoring of modified files. Creating a proper task schedule can actually implement running this command at specific times to almost perfectly reproduce syncing. You can also run this before modification on a machine and after modification on a machine. Even doing the same thing on a second machine if your using a network drive to sync.
Your method will have two main problems:
Files deleted from one folder will be reinstated by the copy left in the other folder the next time you run your xcopy
Renaming files can cause chaotic results.

Copying a Folder and renaming it using command prompt

I am trying to copy a folder and paste it in the same directory it was copied from.
For example
C:\Test is the main directory which consists of a folder ACDM, I would like to copy ACDM in the same directory and rename the new folder to ACDM1 which will have all the same files as ACDM has
I would like to do it using command prompt
I tried the following
C:>Xcopy C:\Test C:\Test\ACDM1 /E /U
Cannot perform a cyclic copy
0 File(s) copied
which fails, not sure hoe to add REN command with XCOPY command.
Need help ASAP as i would want to create a batch file which will create a copy of an existing folder and rename it according to a name retrieved from a text file..
xcopy "C:\Test\ACDM\*.*" "C:\Test\ACDM1\" /s/h/e/k/f/c
for /f "delims=" %%a in (yourtextfilename) do xcopy "C:\Test\ACDM" "C:\Test\%%a\" /E
as a .bat file line. Directly from the prompt, change each %% to %
I've assumed (for lack of futher information) that your textfile contains just the one line
ACDM1
neither do you specify the textfilename tou want to use.
xcopy C:\Test\ACDM C:\Test\ACDM1\ /E /Q

xcopy does not create directory structure

I have a strange problem with xcopy in Windows XP Professional. I don't know if its a stupid question as I am specifying only a file as the source, so should I even expect any other behavior ? This is it:
I am using xcopy <src> <dest> /s/y.
<src>=C:\sourcefolder\a\b\c\d\something.java and
<dest>=C:\destinationfolder.
Now xcopy copies the file but does not create the directory structure \a\b\c\d\ inside C:\destinationfolder .
what I want is C:\destinationfolder\a\b\c\d\something.java and
what I get is C:\destinationfolder\something.java
I have tried to run it in destination folder C:\destinationfolder by specifying a . for target folder
Tried it without any target in above
There is a script I have which calls xcopy iteratively so I am left with C:\destinationfolder\many java files without any directory structure.
A. Yes I have done xcopy /? to see all options
B. /T also does not create any empty directory structure
C. I can not go to source folder a\b\c\d\ and run xcopy . <dest>
UPDATE
I removed my previous answer on using ROBOCOPY. I believe the following will do what you want using XCOPY.
Assuming your folder structure is like this:
SOURCE = C:\MyJavaStuff\A\B\C\D\something.java
DEST = C:\MyDestination
Run XCOPY like this:
XCOPY C:\MyJavaStuff\something*.java C:\MyDestination /S /E
Note the * in something*.java.
The problem is that you are specifying which file to copy in the source. xcopy won't create the folder structure in this case. However, if you change your call to xcopy to
xcopy *.java C:\myfolder /s/y
it will copy the .java files and the folder structure as well. You need to specify a wildcard for this call to work as you want. If you want only to copy specific files, you will have to adjust the call to xopy, e.g.:
xcopy something.jav* C:\myfolder /s/y
Edit
You say that you get the list of files to copy from another command. If you can output this list of files in a text file, you could do the following:
FOR /F "tokens=* delims=," %F in (d:\test\list.txt) DO xcopy src\%~nxF* .\dest /S /Y
What this command does is read a text file ("d:\test\list.txt" in this case), read every line, and for each file, run xcopy, adding a wildcard at the end of the file name to make sure it creates the folder structure.
I'm assuming here that:
You can get the list of files in a text file, with only the file names (and optinally the paths)
You know the source folder ("C:\sourcefolder" in your example, the folder structure "a\b\c\d" does not need to be known) and can use it in the FOR command.
You can also use the following form:
FOR /F "tokens=* delims=," %F in ('cmd') DO xcopy src\%~nxF* .\dest /S /Y
where cmd needs to be replace with the command you use to generate your list of files to copy.
Note that if you use this FOR command in a batch file, you need to replace %F with %%F (and %~nxF* with %%~nxF*).
I had a look at the xcopy switches and you can copy the directory structure with /T, although that doesn't copy empty directories you can override this with /E. So your command would look like this:
xcopy C:\sourcefolder\a\b\c\d\something.java C:\destinationfolder /T /E /S /Y
Hope this helps!
In order to get C:\destinationfolder\a\b\c\d\something.java XCOPY needs to know how much of C:\sourcefolder\a\b\c\d\something.java to duplicate.
You can use:
C:
cd \sourcefolder
XCOPY something.java* C:\destinationfolder\ /S
Just be aware that this may have the side effect of also copying C:\sourcefolder\oops\something.java to C:\destinationfolder\oops\something.java as well as any other matches for something*.java under C:\sourcefolder\.
It seems to me that xcopy is typically used for copying directory trees, not single files (though it can work). And, xcopy will recreate the directory structure under the source folder in the target folder. If xcopy is given the /i switch, the target folder is assumed to be a directory. It will be created if it does not exist, even if there are multiple parents that need to be created.
You have C:\MyJavaStuff\A\B\C\D\something.java - that is your source. You want to end up with something.java not in C:\destinationfolder, but in C:\destinationfolder\A\B\C\D - so that is your target. You don't even have C:\destinationfolder. That is OK, with /i the entire path will be created.
xcopy /i c:\MyJavaStuff\A\B\C\D\something.java C:\destinationfolder\A\B\C\D
If something.java were the only file under C:\MyJavaStuff, you could also use
xcopy /sei c:\MyJavaStuff C:\destinationfolder
That would recreate the entire tree structure, copying your file. But if there are other files (and folders) under MyJavaStuff they would also be copied.
I have written a very similar batch file using xcopy. Perhaps what I did will help you.
This is the command I used:
xcopy "c:\Data Files\Dave's Data\*.*" "m:\Dave's Data" /R/D /E/H
In this case, Dave's Data on the source contains an entire directory tree containing at least 50,000 files & exceeding 75GB data. It runs perfectly on Windows XP
I found /T was unnecessary as the directory tree is copied. I also found /S was unnecessary as /E copied directories & sub-directories including empty ones. I included /R to copy & overwrite read only files on the destination. /H copied hidden directories. /D copied only newer files. I use this as a daily backup tool for my data.
The only problem I have is while this command will work on Windows 7 the first time, it will not work on subsequent runs when the destination directory tree exists. I suspect this is due to a privilege issue as the xcopy command will work on subsequent runs on Windows 7 within a cmd.exe window.

Directo copy batch file command

How can copy a folder(located in the location of batch file)containing another folders and files to another location using batch file...
i am trying using command below but not working..
xcopy /E /Y %~p\DagwoodLoki#hp.com\* C:\Loki
Please help me
I dont know what "%~p" does but i think that following should work
xcopy %~p\DagwoodLoki#hp.com\ C:\Loki /E /Y
the /E and /Y must be written later the source and the target.
Maybe this?
xcopy /E /Y "%~dp0\DagwoodLoki#hp.com\*" C:\Loki
%~dp0 is substituted with drive+path to the batch file, without quotes, if any.

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