How to say no to all do you want to overwrite prompts in a batch file copy

Question

By default  copying from the command prompt will prompt you to overwrite files that already exist in the target location   You can add   Y  to say  Yes to all  replacements   But how can you say  No to all     In other words  I want to copy everything from one directory that does not already exist in the target   The closest thing I see is the XCOPY argument to only copy things after a specific mod-datetime

User · Answer

You can make a text file with a single long line of "n" then run your command and put < nc.txt after it. I did this to copy over 145,000 instances where "No overwrite" was what I wanted and it worked fine this way.

Or you can just hold the n key down with something, but that takes longer than using the < to pipe it in.

User · Answer

this works fine  no   cp -rf c  source c  Dest

User · Answer

Depending on the size and number of files being copied  you could copy the destination directory over the source first with  yes to all   then do the original copy you were doing  also with  yes to all  set   That should give you the same results

User · Answer

Unless there s a scenario where you d not want to copy existing files in the source that have changed since the last copy  why not use XCOPY with  D without specifying a date

User · Answer

We used  robocopy  through  invoke-command  to copy a huge amount of VMs in our environment  We ve discovered that  robocopy  unexpectedly exits sometimes and the whole proccess goes to down  So we ve decided to use  xcopy   Now we re checking it s work and to  create   Not for all  option we use that function  powershell    function gen long no  string  path         result       Get-ChildItem  path -Recurse       if     PSIsContainer -eq  false     result     n           return  result    Maybe helps somebody

User · Answer

Adding the switches for subdirectories and verification work just fine   echo n   xcopy -Y s e v c  source    c  Dest

User · Answer

We used  robocopy  through  invoke-command  to copy a huge amount of VMs in our environment  We ve discovered that  robocopy  unexpectedly exits sometimes and the whole proccess goes to down  So we ve decided to use  xcopy   Now we re checking it s work and to  create   Not for all  option we use that function  powershell    function gen long no  string  path         result       Get-ChildItem  path -Recurse       if     PSIsContainer -eq  false     result     n           return  result    Maybe helps somebody

User · Answer

Depending on the size and number of files being copied  you could copy the destination directory over the source first with  yes to all   then do the original copy you were doing  also with  yes to all  set   That should give you the same results

User · Answer

I expect xxcopy has an option for that   Bingo   http   www xxcopy com xxcopy27 htm tag 231  2 3   By comparison with the file in destination      The switches in this group select files based on the     comparison between the files in the source and those in     the destination   They are often used for periodic backup     and directory synchronization purposes  These switches     were originally created as variations of directory backup      They are also convenient for selecting files for deletion   2 3 1  by Presence Absence      The  BB and  U switches are the two switches which select     files by the pure presence or absence as the criteria      Other switches in the this group  Group 2 3  are also     affected by the file in the destination  but for a     particular characteristics for comparison s sake        BB  Selects files that are present in source but not in destination       U   Selects files that are present in both source and destination    -Adam

User · Answer

I use XCOPY with the following parameters for copying  NET assemblies    D  Y  R  H    D m-d-y - Copies files changed on or after the specified date  If no date is given  copies only those files whose source time is newer than the destination time    Y - Suppresses prompting to confirm you want to overwrite an existing destination file    R - Overwrites read-only files    H - Copies hidden and system files also

User · Answer

Depending on the size and number of files being copied  you could copy the destination directory over the source first with  yes to all   then do the original copy you were doing  also with  yes to all  set   That should give you the same results

User · Answer

You can make a text file with a single long line of "n" then run your command and put < nc.txt after it. I did this to copy over 145,000 instances where "No overwrite" was what I wanted and it worked fine this way.

Or you can just hold the n key down with something, but that takes longer than using the < to pipe it in.

User · Answer

Try this   robocopy  source   destination   e  b  copyall  xo  it   Copy that line into notepad and save as a  bat file  Run the file and it will copy everything from the source to the destination  When you run it again it will not replace files that are identical  when you change or a file changes it will replace the file at the destination   test it out  I created a  txt file with a few works  ran the script  change the wording on the  txt file and ran the script again  it replace only the change file from the source     e Copies subdirectories  Note that this option includes empty directories  b Copies files in Backup mode  copyall Copies all file information  xo Excludes older files   this is what prevents it from copy the same file over and over   it Includes  tweaked  files   this will allow the copy and replace of modified files

User · Answer

I use XCOPY with the following parameters for copying  NET assemblies    D  Y  R  H    D m-d-y - Copies files changed on or after the specified date  If no date is given  copies only those files whose source time is newer than the destination time    Y - Suppresses prompting to confirm you want to overwrite an existing destination file    R - Overwrites read-only files    H - Copies hidden and system files also

User · Answer

I expect xxcopy has an option for that   Bingo   http   www xxcopy com xxcopy27 htm tag 231  2 3   By comparison with the file in destination      The switches in this group select files based on the     comparison between the files in the source and those in     the destination   They are often used for periodic backup     and directory synchronization purposes  These switches     were originally created as variations of directory backup      They are also convenient for selecting files for deletion   2 3 1  by Presence Absence      The  BB and  U switches are the two switches which select     files by the pure presence or absence as the criteria      Other switches in the this group  Group 2 3  are also     affected by the file in the destination  but for a     particular characteristics for comparison s sake        BB  Selects files that are present in source but not in destination       U   Selects files that are present in both source and destination    -Adam

User · Answer

Unless there s a scenario where you d not want to copy existing files in the source that have changed since the last copy  why not use XCOPY with  D without specifying a date

User · Answer

Here s a workaround  If you want to copy everything from A that does not already exist in B   Copy A to a new directory C  Copy B to C  overwriting anything that overlaps with A  Copy C to B

User · Answer

echo N   copy  -y   SolutionDir SomeDir   OutDir

User · Answer

I use XCOPY with the following parameters for copying  NET assemblies    D  Y  R  H    D m-d-y - Copies files changed on or after the specified date  If no date is given  copies only those files whose source time is newer than the destination time    Y - Suppresses prompting to confirm you want to overwrite an existing destination file    R - Overwrites read-only files    H - Copies hidden and system files also

User · Answer

Unless there s a scenario where you d not want to copy existing files in the source that have changed since the last copy  why not use XCOPY with  D without specifying a date

User · Answer

Here s a workaround  If you want to copy everything from A that does not already exist in B   Copy A to a new directory C  Copy B to C  overwriting anything that overlaps with A  Copy C to B

User · Answer

I expect xxcopy has an option for that   Bingo   http   www xxcopy com xxcopy27 htm tag 231  2 3   By comparison with the file in destination      The switches in this group select files based on the     comparison between the files in the source and those in     the destination   They are often used for periodic backup     and directory synchronization purposes  These switches     were originally created as variations of directory backup      They are also convenient for selecting files for deletion   2 3 1  by Presence Absence      The  BB and  U switches are the two switches which select     files by the pure presence or absence as the criteria      Other switches in the this group  Group 2 3  are also     affected by the file in the destination  but for a     particular characteristics for comparison s sake        BB  Selects files that are present in source but not in destination       U   Selects files that are present in both source and destination    -Adam

User · Answer

Depending on the size and number of files being copied  you could copy the destination directory over the source first with  yes to all   then do the original copy you were doing  also with  yes to all  set   That should give you the same results

User · Answer

echo  No    copy -Y c  source c  Dest

User · Answer

echo N   copy  -y   SolutionDir SomeDir   OutDir

User · Answer

Here s a workaround  If you want to copy everything from A that does not already exist in B   Copy A to a new directory C  Copy B to C  overwriting anything that overlaps with A  Copy C to B

User · Answer

Adding the switches for subdirectories and verification work just fine   echo n   xcopy -Y s e v c  source    c  Dest

User · Answer

Try this   robocopy  source   destination   e  b  copyall  xo  it   Copy that line into notepad and save as a  bat file  Run the file and it will copy everything from the source to the destination  When you run it again it will not replace files that are identical  when you change or a file changes it will replace the file at the destination   test it out  I created a  txt file with a few works  ran the script  change the wording on the  txt file and ran the script again  it replace only the change file from the source     e Copies subdirectories  Note that this option includes empty directories  b Copies files in Backup mode  copyall Copies all file information  xo Excludes older files   this is what prevents it from copy the same file over and over   it Includes  tweaked  files   this will allow the copy and replace of modified files

User · Answer

I expect xxcopy has an option for that   Bingo   http   www xxcopy com xxcopy27 htm tag 231  2 3   By comparison with the file in destination      The switches in this group select files based on the     comparison between the files in the source and those in     the destination   They are often used for periodic backup     and directory synchronization purposes  These switches     were originally created as variations of directory backup      They are also convenient for selecting files for deletion   2 3 1  by Presence Absence      The  BB and  U switches are the two switches which select     files by the pure presence or absence as the criteria      Other switches in the this group  Group 2 3  are also     affected by the file in the destination  but for a     particular characteristics for comparison s sake        BB  Selects files that are present in source but not in destination       U   Selects files that are present in both source and destination    -Adam

User · Answer

echo  No    copy -Y c  source c  Dest

User · Answer

Thanks for this   I am using the command line utility AzCopy  v 3 1 0 93  to move  1 million files from my local PC to my Azure blob storage   I ve got some duplicates and cannot babysit the copy to answer each prompt and don t want to re-upload the same file   The AzCopy utility offers a  Y command to suppress the confirmation prompts but ends up telling it to overwrite the destination file   Going this route I was able to get it to NOT re-upload the file   However  it does seem like a bit of a hack since it is not actually answering the prompt with  No   instead I get the error  No input is received when user needed to make a choice among several given options   but does not upload the file   Here is the command I used   echo n   AzCopy  Source   file path    Dest   blob storage URL    DestKey  key   Hope this helps the next guy

User · Answer

Here s a workaround  If you want to copy everything from A that does not already exist in B   Copy A to a new directory C  Copy B to C  overwriting anything that overlaps with A  Copy C to B

User · Answer

this works fine  no   cp -rf c  source c  Dest

User · Answer

I know you all think  D  date is going to use date stuff  but just  D without the  does exactly what we want so     xcopy  Source   Destination   E  D    Will copy without overwriting to pickup those files that are new or maybe failed before for some reason   Just try it  it works

User · Answer

I use XCOPY with the following parameters for copying  NET assemblies    D  Y  R  H    D m-d-y - Copies files changed on or after the specified date  If no date is given  copies only those files whose source time is newer than the destination time    Y - Suppresses prompting to confirm you want to overwrite an existing destination file    R - Overwrites read-only files    H - Copies hidden and system files also

User · Answer

Thanks for this   I am using the command line utility AzCopy  v 3 1 0 93  to move  1 million files from my local PC to my Azure blob storage   I ve got some duplicates and cannot babysit the copy to answer each prompt and don t want to re-upload the same file   The AzCopy utility offers a  Y command to suppress the confirmation prompts but ends up telling it to overwrite the destination file   Going this route I was able to get it to NOT re-upload the file   However  it does seem like a bit of a hack since it is not actually answering the prompt with  No   instead I get the error  No input is received when user needed to make a choice among several given options   but does not upload the file   Here is the command I used   echo n   AzCopy  Source   file path    Dest   blob storage URL    DestKey  key   Hope this helps the next guy

User · Answer

Unless there s a scenario where you d not want to copy existing files in the source that have changed since the last copy  why not use XCOPY with  D without specifying a date

User · Answer

I know you all think  D  date is going to use date stuff  but just  D without the  does exactly what we want so     xcopy  Source   Destination   E  D    Will copy without overwriting to pickup those files that are new or maybe failed before for some reason   Just try it  it works

[batch-file] How to say no to all "do you want to overwrite" prompts in a batch file copy?

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