I have a site that I'm building a test environment for and I need to "copy" the whole setup to another server.
In that process I need to copy some templates and the question is: How do I do that (I can find e.g. the site template folder on the production server, but copying the files is not enough)?
Best Answer
I'm surprised nobody mentioned this but why not create a custom site definition. Site definitions can be wrapped in a SharePoint solution file, making it a reproducable, simple process to deploy your template. A site definition can contain anything you want deployed, from lists to site templates to .aspx files to .doc etc. etc. It is all written in declarative CAML. (and features you can activate automatically in either the onet.xml or by using Feature Stapling, if needed executing featurereceivers in the process).
When using a site definition you create a base on which you then build your website. On my current project all files needed for initial deployment are in the solution, when the server (yes it is a sharepoint + sql box only deployment) goes bust I just roll out the solution to a new server and reattach the content database and we're up and running again in 10 minutes.