How to copy files using Windows Batch

batch-filecmdcopy

I have a directory with several subdirectories with files.
How can I copy all files in the subdirectories to a new location?

Edit: I do not want to copy the directories, just the files…

As this is still on XP, I chose the below solution:

 for /D %S IN ("src\*.*") DO  @COPY "%S\" "dest\"

Thanks!

Best Answer

Ok. With your edit that says you don't want the directory structure, i think you're going to want to use something like this:

for /F "usebackq" %s IN (`DIR /B /S /A-D SrcDir`) DO @(
    XCOPY %s DestDir\%~nxs
)

Related Solutions

How to pass arguments to a batch file

Another useful tip is to use %* to mean "all". For example:

echo off
set arg1=%1
set arg2=%2
shift
shift
fake-command /u %arg1% /p %arg2% %*

When you run:

test-command admin password foo bar

the above batch file will run:

fake-command /u admin /p password admin password foo bar

I may have the syntax slightly wrong, but this is the general idea.

Windows – Batch file to delete files older than N days

Enjoy:

forfiles -p "C:\what\ever" -s -m *.* -d <number of days> -c "cmd /c del @path"

See forfiles documentation for more details.

For more goodies, refer to An A-Z Index of the Windows XP command line.

If you don't have forfiles installed on your machine, copy it from any Windows Server 2003 to your Windows XP machine at %WinDir%\system32\. This is possible since the EXE is fully compatible between Windows Server 2003 and Windows XP.

Later versions of Windows and Windows Server have it installed by default.

For Windows 7 and newer (including Windows 10):

The syntax has changed a little. Therefore the updated command is:

forfiles /p "C:\what\ever" /s /m *.* /D -<number of days> /C "cmd /c del @path"

Best Answer

Related Solutions

How to pass arguments to a batch file

Windows – Batch file to delete files older than N days

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