XCOPY switch to create specified directory if it doesn t exist

Question

I am using XCOPY in a post-build event to copy compiled DLLs from their output folders to the main app s output folder  The DLLs are being copied to a  Modules  subfolder in the main app output folder  like this   xcopy     TargetPath      SolutionDir Prism4Demo Shell   OutDir Modules      The command works fine if the Modules folder exists  but I have discovered during testing that if the folder doesn t exist  XCOPY doesn t create it  and the command fails   Is there an XCOPY switch that will cause the folder to be created if it doesn t exist  If not  what would I add to my post-build event to create the folder if it doesn t exist  Thanks for your help

User · Answer

You could use robocopy   robocopy    TargetPath      SolutionDir Prism4Demo Shell   OutDir Modules   E

User · Answer

I hate the PostBuild step  it allows for too much stuff to happen outside of the build tool s purview  I believe that its better to let MSBuild manage the copy process  and do the updating  You can edit the  csproj file like this      lt Target Name  AfterBuild  Inputs    TargetPath      gt       lt Copy SourceFiles    TargetPath      DestinationFiles    SolutionDir Prism4Demo Shell   OutDir Modules     OverwriteReadOnlyFiles  true  gt  lt  Copy gt     lt  Target gt

User · Answer

Try  E  To get a full list of options   xcopy

User · Answer

Answer to use   I  is working but with little trick - in target you must end with character   to tell xcopy that target is directory and not file   Example   xcopy    TargetDir   TargetName  dll     SolutionDir  DropFolder   F  R  Y  I   does not work and return code 2  but this one   xcopy    TargetDir   TargetName  dll     SolutionDir  DropFolder    F  R  Y  I   Command line arguments used in my sample    F - Displays full source  amp  target file names   R - This will overwrite read-only files   Y - Suppresses prompting to overwrite an existing file s    I - Assumes that destination is directory  but must ends with

User · Answer

I tried this on the command line using  D   gt xcopy myfile dat xcopytest test    and the target directory was properly created   If not you can create the target dir using the mkdir command with cmd s command extensions enabled like  cmd  x  c mkdir    SolutionDir Prism4Demo Shell   OutDir Modules        x  enables command extensions in case they re not enabled by default on your system  I m not that familiar with cmd   use  cmd     mkdir    xcopy      for further information

User · Answer

I tried this on the command it is working for me   if    OutDir     bin Debug     goto Visual  TFSBuild goto exit  Visual xcopy  y    TargetPath   TargetName  dll     ProjectDir    Demo  xcopy  y    TargetDir   TargetName  pdb     ProjectDir    Demo  goto exit  exit

User · Answer

Simple short answer is this   xcopy  Y  I    SolutionDir  lt my-src-path gt      SolutionDir  lt my-dst-path gt

User · Answer

Use the  i with xcopy and if the directory doesn t exist it will create the directory for you

[xcopy] XCOPY switch to create specified directory if it doesn't exist?

Examples related to xcopy

Examples related to post-build-event