Copy files without overwrite

Question

I just can t seem to find a way on the command line to say  copy all the files from directory A to directory B  but if the file already exists in directory B  don t overwrite it  no matter which file is newer  and don t prompt me    I have been through copy  move  xcopy  amp  robocopy  and the closest I can get is that you can tell robocopy  copy A to B  but don t overwrite newer files with older files   but that doesn t work for me  I looked at xxcopy  but discarded it  as I don t want to have a third-party dependency on a Visual Studio post-build event that will require other SVN users to have that tool installed in order to do the build   I want to add a command line to the post-build event in Visual nbsp Studio nbsp 2010 so that the files that are generated from the T4 templates for new EF model objects get distributed to the project folders to which they belong  but regenerated files for existing objects don t overwrite potentially edited destination files   Since the T4 template regenerates  the source file is always newer  and I can t use the  newer  switch reliably  I don t think   I use partial classes for those items for which I can  but there are other things I generate that can t use partial classes  e g  generating a default EditorTemplate or DisplayTemplate   ascx file    Any one have any similar problems they have solved

User · Answer

I just want to clarify something from my own testing.

@Hydrargyrum wrote:

/XN excludes existing files newer than the copy in the source directory. Robocopy normally overwrites those.
/XO excludes existing files older than the copy in the source directory. Robocopy normally overwrites those.

This is actually backwards. XN does "eXclude Newer" files but it excludes files that are newer than the copy in the destination directory. XO does "eXclude Older", but it excludes files that are older than the copy in the destination directory.

Of course do your own testing as always.

User · Answer

A simple approach would be to use the  MIR option  to mirror the two directories  Basically it will copy only the new files to destination  In next comand replace source and destination with the paths to your folders  the script will search for any file with any extensions   robocopy  lt source directory gt   lt destination directory gt       MIR

User · Answer

robocopy src dst  MIR  XX    XX   eXclude  eXtra  files and dirs  present in destination but not source   This will prevent any deletions from the destination   this is the default

User · Answer

There is an odd way to do this with xcopy   echo nnnnnnnnnnn   xcopy  -y source target   Just include as many n s as files you re copying  and it will answer n to all of the overwrite questions

User · Answer

Here it is in batch file form    echo off set source  1 set dest  2 for   f in   source     do if not exist   dest     nxf  copy    f    dest     nxf

User · Answer

Robocopy  or  Robust File Copy   is a command-line directory replication command  It has been available as part of the Windows Resource Kit starting with Windows NT 4 0  and was introduced as a standard feature of Windows Vista  Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008          robocopy c  Sourcepath c  Destpath  E  XC  XN  XO   To elaborate  using Hydrargyrum  HailGallaxar and Andy Schmidt answers      E makes Robocopy recursively copy subdirectories  including empty ones    XC excludes existing files with the same timestamp  but different file sizes  Robocopy normally overwrites those    XN excludes existing files newer than the copy in the destination directory  Robocopy normally overwrites those    XO excludes  existing files older than the copy in the destination directory  Robocopy normally overwrites those    With the Changed  Older  and Newer classes excluded  Robocopy does exactly what the original poster wants - without needing to load a scripting environment   References  Technet  Wikipedia Download from  Microsoft Download Link  Link last verified on Mar 30  2016

User · Answer

You can try this   echo n   copy  -y  lt SOURCE gt   lt DESTINATION gt    -y simply prompts before overwriting and we can pipe n to all those questions  So this would in essence just copy non-existing files

User · Answer

For  F In   C  From       Do If Not Exist  C  To   nxF  Copy   F   C  To   nxF

User · Answer

Belisarius  solution is good   To elaborate on that slightly terse answer     E makes Robocopy recursively copy subdirectories  including empty ones    XC excludes existing files with the same timestamp  but different file sizes  Robocopy normally overwrites those    XN excludes existing files newer than the copy in the source directory  Robocopy normally overwrites those    XO excludes  existing files older than the copy in the source directory  Robocopy normally overwrites those    With the Changed  Older  and Newer classes excluded  Robocopy does exactly what the original poster wants - without needing to load a scripting environment

User · Answer

It won t let me comment directly on the incorrect messages - but let me just warn everyone  that the definition of the  XN and  XO options are REVERSED compared to what has been posted in previous messages   The Exclude Older Newer files option is consistent with the information displayed in RoboCopy s logging  RoboCopy will iterate through the SOURCE and then report whether each file in the SOURCE is  OLDER  or  NEWER  than the file in the destination   Consequently   XO will exclude OLDER SOURCE files  which is intuitive   not  older than the source  as had been claimed here    If you want to copy only new or changed source files  but avoid replacing more recent destination files  then  XO is the correct option to use

User · Answer

This is what has worked for me  I use this to  add  files over to the other drive  with no overwrites   Batch file  robocopy-missingfiles bat   echo off echo Copying  echo        1  echo   to   2  echo  echo Press Cntr C to abort Pause echo   echo on robocopy  1  2  Xo  XN  XC  J  SL  S  MT 8  R 1  W 1  V  DCOPY DAT  ETA  COPY DATO  FFT  A- SH  XD  RECYCLE BIN  System Volume Information    Example   robocopy-missingfiles bat f  Working-folder  E  Backup-folder    Do test before implementation

User · Answer

Robocopy can be downloaded here for systems where it is not installed already   I e  Windows Server 2003     http   www microsoft com download en details aspx displaylang en amp id 17657  no reboot required for installation   Remember to set your path to the robocopy exe  You do this by right clicking  my computer   properties advanced  Environment Variables   then find the path system variable and add this to the end    C  Program Files Windows Resource Kits Tools  or wherever you installed it  Make sure to leave the path variable strings that are already there and just append the addtional path   once the path is set  you can run the command that belisarius suggests  It works great

[windows] Copy files without overwrite

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