Copy the entire contents of a directory in C

Question

I want to copy the entire contents of a directory from one location to another in C    There doesn t appear to be a way to do this using System IO classes without lots of recursion   There is a method in VB that we can use if we add a reference to Microsoft VisualBasic   new Microsoft VisualBasic Devices Computer        FileSystem CopyDirectory  sourceFolder  outputFolder      This seems like a rather ugly hack  Is there a better way

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Copy and replace all files of the folder          public static void CopyAndReplaceAll string SourcePath  string DestinationPath  string backupPath                    foreach  string dirPath in Directory GetDirectories SourcePath       SearchOption AllDirectories                                 Directory CreateDirectory    DestinationPath  dirPath Remove 0  SourcePath Length                      Directory CreateDirectory    backupPath  dirPath Remove 0  SourcePath Length                                foreach  string newPath in Directory GetFiles SourcePath         SearchOption AllDirectories                                 if   File Exists     DestinationPath  newPath Remove 0  SourcePath Length                          File Copy newPath      DestinationPath  newPath Remove 0  SourcePath Length                      else                     File Replace newPath                               DestinationPath  newPath Remove 0  SourcePath Length                                  backupPath  newPath Remove 0  SourcePath Length     false

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Use this class   public static class Extensions       public static void CopyTo this DirectoryInfo source  DirectoryInfo target  bool overwiteFiles   true                if   source Exists  return          if   target Exists  target Create             Parallel ForEach source GetDirectories     sourceChildDirectory    gt               CopyTo sourceChildDirectory  new DirectoryInfo Path Combine target FullName  sourceChildDirectory Name               foreach  var sourceFile in source GetFiles                sourceFile CopyTo Path Combine target FullName  sourceFile Name   overwiteFiles             public static void CopyTo this DirectoryInfo source  string target  bool overwiteFiles   true                CopyTo source  new DirectoryInfo target   overwiteFiles

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Much easier    Now Create all of the directories foreach  string dirPath in Directory GetDirectories SourcePath            SearchOption AllDirectories       Directory CreateDirectory dirPath Replace SourcePath  DestinationPath       Copy all the files  amp  Replaces any files with the same name foreach  string newPath in Directory GetFiles SourcePath              SearchOption AllDirectories       File Copy newPath  newPath Replace SourcePath  DestinationPath   true

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This is my code hope this help      private void KCOPY string source  string destination                if  IsFile source                         string target   Path Combine destination  Path GetFileName source                File Copy source  target  true                     else                       string fileName   Path GetFileName source               string target   System IO Path Combine destination  fileName               if   System IO Directory Exists target                                 System IO Directory CreateDirectory target                              List lt string gt  files   GetAllFileAndFolder source                foreach  string file in files                                KCOPY file  target                                      private List lt string gt  GetAllFileAndFolder string path                List lt string gt  allFile   new List lt string gt             foreach  string dir in Directory GetDirectories path                         allFile Add dir                     foreach  string file in Directory GetFiles path                         allFile Add file                      return allFile            private bool IsFile string path                if   File GetAttributes path   amp  FileAttributes Directory     FileAttributes Directory                        return false                    return true

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If you like Konrad s popular answer  but you want the source itself to be a folder under target  rather than putting it s children under the target folder  here s the code for that  It returns the newly created DirectoryInfo  which is handy   public static DirectoryInfo CopyFilesRecursively DirectoryInfo source  DirectoryInfo target      var newDirectoryInfo   target CreateSubdirectory source Name     foreach  var fileInfo in source GetFiles        fileInfo CopyTo Path Combine newDirectoryInfo FullName  fileInfo Name       foreach  var childDirectoryInfo in source GetDirectories        CopyFilesRecursively childDirectoryInfo  newDirectoryInfo      return newDirectoryInfo

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Copied from MSDN   using System  using System IO   class CopyDir       public static void Copy string sourceDirectory  string targetDirectory                DirectoryInfo diSource   new DirectoryInfo sourceDirectory           DirectoryInfo diTarget   new DirectoryInfo targetDirectory            CopyAll diSource  diTarget              public static void CopyAll DirectoryInfo source  DirectoryInfo target                Directory CreateDirectory target FullName               Copy each file into the new directory          foreach  FileInfo fi in source GetFiles                          Console WriteLine   Copying  0   1    target FullName  fi Name               fi CopyTo Path Combine target FullName  fi Name   true                         Copy each subdirectory using recursion          foreach  DirectoryInfo diSourceSubDir in source GetDirectories                          DirectoryInfo nextTargetSubDir                   target CreateSubdirectory diSourceSubDir Name               CopyAll diSourceSubDir  nextTargetSubDir                        public static void Main                 string sourceDirectory     c  sourceDirectory           string targetDirectory     c  targetDirectory            Copy sourceDirectory  targetDirectory                 Output will vary based on the contents of the source directory

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This site always have helped me out a lot  and now it s my turn to help the others with what I know   I hope that my code below be useful for someone   string source dir     E     string destination dir     C         substring is to remove destination dir absolute path  E         Create subdirectory structure in destination         foreach  string dir in System IO Directory GetDirectories source dir       System IO SearchOption AllDirectories                 System IO Directory CreateDirectory System IO Path Combine destination dir  dir Substring source dir Length   1                Example                  gt  C  sources  and not C  E  sources             foreach  string file name in System IO Directory GetFiles source dir       System IO SearchOption AllDirectories                 System IO File Copy file name  System IO Path Combine destination dir  file name Substring source dir Length   1

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My solution is basically a modification of  Termininja s answer  however I have enhanced it a bit and it appears to be more than 5 times faster than the accepted answer    public static void CopyEntireDirectory string path  string newPath        Parallel ForEach Directory GetFileSystemEntries path       SearchOption AllDirectories        fileName    gt                string output   Regex Replace fileName        Regex Escape path   newPath           if  File Exists fileName                         Directory CreateDirectory Path GetDirectoryName output                File Copy fileName  output  true                     else             Directory CreateDirectory output               EDIT  Modifying  Ahmed Sabry to full parallel foreach does produce a better result  however the code uses recursive function and its not ideal in some situation   public static void CopyEntireDirectory DirectoryInfo source  DirectoryInfo target  bool overwiteFiles   true        if   source Exists  return      if   target Exists  target Create         Parallel ForEach source GetDirectories     sourceChildDirectory    gt          CopyEntireDirectory sourceChildDirectory  new DirectoryInfo Path Combine target FullName  sourceChildDirectory Name           Parallel ForEach source GetFiles    sourceFile   gt          sourceFile CopyTo Path Combine target FullName  sourceFile Name   overwiteFiles

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The code below is microsoft suggestion how-to-copy-directories and it is shared by dear  iato but it just copies sub directories and files of source folder recursively and doesn t copy the source folder it self  like right click -  copy     but there is a tricky way below this answer    private static void DirectoryCopy string sourceDirName  string destDirName  bool copySubDirs   true                           Get the subdirectories for the specified directory              DirectoryInfo dir   new DirectoryInfo sourceDirName                if   dir Exists                                throw new DirectoryNotFoundException                       Source directory does not exist or could not be found                          sourceDirName                              DirectoryInfo   dirs   dir GetDirectories                   If the destination directory doesn t exist  create it              if   Directory Exists destDirName                                 Directory CreateDirectory destDirName                                 Get the files in the directory and copy them to the new location              FileInfo   files   dir GetFiles                foreach  FileInfo file in files                                string temppath   Path Combine destDirName  file Name                   file CopyTo temppath  false                                 If copying subdirectories  copy them and their contents to new location              if  copySubDirs                                foreach  DirectoryInfo subdir in dirs                                        string temppath   Path Combine destDirName  subdir Name                       DirectoryCopy subdir FullName  temppath  copySubDirs                                               if you want to copy contents of source folder and subfolders recursively you can simply use it like this    string source     J  source    string dest    J  destination    DirectoryCopy source  dest     but if you want to copy the source directory it self  similar that you have right clicked on source folder and clicked copy then in the destination folder you clicked paste  you should use like this     string source     J  source     string dest    J  destination     DirectoryCopy source  Path Combine dest  new DirectoryInfo source  Name

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A minor improvement on d4nt s answer  as you probably want to check for errors and not have to change xcopy paths if you re working on a server and development machine   public void CopyFolder string source  string destination        string xcopyPath   Environment GetEnvironmentVariable  WINDIR        System32 xcopy exe       ProcessStartInfo info   new ProcessStartInfo xcopyPath       info UseShellExecute   false      info RedirectStandardOutput   true      info Arguments   string Format     0       1     E  I   source  destination        Process process   Process Start info       process WaitForExit        string result   process StandardOutput ReadToEnd         if  process ExitCode    0                   Or your own custom exception  or just return false if you prefer          throw new InvalidOperationException string Format  Failed to copy  0  to  1    2    source  destination  result

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Here is an extension method for DirectoryInfo a la FileInfo CopyTo  note the overwrite parameter    public static DirectoryInfo CopyTo this DirectoryInfo sourceDir  string destinationPath  bool overwrite   false        var sourcePath   sourceDir FullName       var destination   new DirectoryInfo destinationPath        destination Create         foreach  var sourceSubDirPath in Directory EnumerateDirectories sourcePath       SearchOption AllDirectories           Directory CreateDirectory sourceSubDirPath Replace sourcePath  destinationPath         foreach  var file in Directory EnumerateFiles sourcePath       SearchOption AllDirectories           File Copy file  file Replace sourcePath  destinationPath   overwrite        return destination

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Try this   Process proc   new Process    proc StartInfo UseShellExecute   true  proc StartInfo FileName   Path Combine Environment SystemDirectory   xcopy exe    proc StartInfo Arguments     C  source C  destination  E  I   proc Start      Your xcopy arguments may vary but you get the idea

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One variant with only one loop for copying of all folders and files   foreach  var f in Directory GetFileSystemEntries path       SearchOption AllDirectories         var output   Regex Replace f         path  newPath       if  File Exists f   File Copy f  output  true       else Directory CreateDirectory output

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Hmm  I think I misunderstand the question but I m going to risk it  What s wrong with the following straightforward method   public static void CopyFilesRecursively DirectoryInfo source  DirectoryInfo target        foreach  DirectoryInfo dir in source GetDirectories            CopyFilesRecursively dir  target CreateSubdirectory dir Name        foreach  FileInfo file in source GetFiles            file CopyTo Path Combine target FullName  file Name        EDIT Since this posting has garnered an impressive number of downvotes for such a simple answer to an equally simple question  let me add an explanation  Please read this before downvoting   First of all  this code is not intendend as a drop-in replacement to the code in the question  It is for illustration purpose only   Microsoft VisualBasic Devices Computer FileSystem CopyDirectory does some additional correctness tests  e g  whether the source and target are valid directories  whether the source is a parent of the target etc   that are missing from this answer  That code is probably also more optimized   That said  the code works well  It has  almost identically  been used in a mature software for years  Apart from the inherent fickleness present with all IO handlings  e g  what happens if the user manually unplugs the USB drive while your code is writing to it    there are no known problems   In particular  I   d like to point out that the use of recursion here is absolutely not a problem  Neither in theory  conceptually  it   s the most elegant solution  nor in practice  this code will not overflow the stack  The stack is large enough to handle even deeply nested file hierarchies  Long before stack space becomes a problem  the folder path length limitation kicks in   Notice that a malicious user might be able to break this assumption by using deeply-nested directories of one letter each  I haven   t tried this  But just to illustrate the point  in order to make this code overflow on a typical computer  the directories would have to be nested a few thousand times  This is simply not a realistic scenario

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It may not be performance-aware  but I m using it for 30MB folders and it works flawlessly  Plus  I didn t like all the amount of code and recursion required for such an easy task  var src    quot c  src quot   var dest    quot c  dest quot   var cmp   CompressionLevel NoCompression  var zip   source folder    quot  zip quot    ZipFile CreateFromDirectory src  zip  cmp  includeBaseDirectory  false   ZipFile ExtractToDirectory zip  dest folder    File Delete zip    Note  ZipFile is available on  NET 4 5  in the System IO Compression namespace

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You can always use this  taken from Microsofts website    static void Main            Copy from the current directory  include subdirectories      DirectoryCopy          temp   true      private static void DirectoryCopy string sourceDirName  string destDirName  bool copySubDirs           Get the subdirectories for the specified directory      DirectoryInfo dir   new DirectoryInfo sourceDirName        if   dir Exists                throw new DirectoryNotFoundException               Source directory does not exist or could not be found                  sourceDirName              DirectoryInfo   dirs   dir GetDirectories           If the destination directory doesn t exist  create it      if   Directory Exists destDirName                 Directory CreateDirectory destDirName                 Get the files in the directory and copy them to the new location      FileInfo   files   dir GetFiles        foreach  FileInfo file in files                string temppath   Path Combine destDirName  file Name           file CopyTo temppath  false                 If copying subdirectories  copy them and their contents to new location      if  copySubDirs                foreach  DirectoryInfo subdir in dirs                        string temppath   Path Combine destDirName  subdir Name               DirectoryCopy subdir FullName  temppath  copySubDirs

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Copy folder recursively without recursion to avoid stack overflow   public static void CopyDirectory string source  string target        var stack   new Stack lt Folders gt         stack Push new Folders source  target         while  stack Count  gt  0                var folders   stack Pop            Directory CreateDirectory folders Target           foreach  var file in Directory GetFiles folders Source                                File Copy file  Path Combine folders Target  Path GetFileName file                        foreach  var folder in Directory GetDirectories folders Source                         stack Push new Folders folder  Path Combine folders Target  Path GetFileName folder                         public class Folders       public string Source   get  private set        public string Target   get  private set         public Folders string source  string target                Source   source          Target   target

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tboswell  s replace Proof version  which is resilient to repeating pattern in filepath   public static void copyAll string SourcePath   string DestinationPath          Now Create all of the directories    foreach  string dirPath in Directory GetDirectories SourcePath       SearchOption AllDirectories         Directory CreateDirectory Path Combine DestinationPath  dirPath Remove 0  SourcePath Length              Copy all the files  amp  Replaces any files with the same name    foreach  string newPath in Directory GetFiles SourcePath          SearchOption AllDirectories         File Copy newPath  Path Combine DestinationPath   newPath Remove 0  SourcePath Length     true

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Here s a utility class I ve used for IO tasks like this   using System  using System Runtime InteropServices   namespace MyNameSpace       public class ShellFileOperation               private static String StringArrayToMultiString String   stringArray                        String multiString                    if  stringArray    null                  return                  for  int i 0   i lt stringArray Length   i                    multiString    stringArray i      0                multiString      0                return multiString                     public static bool Copy string source  string dest                        return Copy new String     source    new String     dest                        public static bool Copy String   source  String   dest                        Win32 SHFILEOPSTRUCT FileOpStruct   new Win32 SHFILEOPSTRUCT                 FileOpStruct hwnd   IntPtr Zero              FileOpStruct wFunc    uint Win32 FO COPY               String multiSource   StringArrayToMultiString source               String multiDest   StringArrayToMultiString dest               FileOpStruct pFrom   Marshal StringToHGlobalUni multiSource               FileOpStruct pTo   Marshal StringToHGlobalUni multiDest                FileOpStruct fFlags    ushort Win32 ShellFileOperationFlags FOF NOCONFIRMATION              FileOpStruct lpszProgressTitle                   FileOpStruct fAnyOperationsAborted   0              FileOpStruct hNameMappings   IntPtr Zero               int retval   Win32 SHFileOperation ref FileOpStruct                if retval    0  return false              return true                     public static bool Move string source  string dest                        return Move new String     source    new String     dest                        public static bool Delete string file                        Win32 SHFILEOPSTRUCT FileOpStruct   new Win32 SHFILEOPSTRUCT                 FileOpStruct hwnd   IntPtr Zero              FileOpStruct wFunc    uint Win32 FO DELETE               String multiSource   StringArrayToMultiString new string     file                 FileOpStruct pFrom   Marshal StringToHGlobalUni multiSource               FileOpStruct pTo    IntPtr Zero               FileOpStruct fFlags    ushort Win32 ShellFileOperationFlags FOF SILENT    ushort Win32 ShellFileOperationFlags FOF NOCONFIRMATION    ushort Win32 ShellFileOperationFlags FOF NOERRORUI    ushort Win32 ShellFileOperationFlags FOF NOCONFIRMMKDIR              FileOpStruct lpszProgressTitle                   FileOpStruct fAnyOperationsAborted   0              FileOpStruct hNameMappings   IntPtr Zero               int retval   Win32 SHFileOperation ref FileOpStruct                if retval    0  return false              return true                     public static bool Move String   source  String   dest                        Win32 SHFILEOPSTRUCT FileOpStruct   new Win32 SHFILEOPSTRUCT                 FileOpStruct hwnd   IntPtr Zero              FileOpStruct wFunc    uint Win32 FO MOVE               String multiSource   StringArrayToMultiString source               String multiDest   StringArrayToMultiString dest               FileOpStruct pFrom   Marshal StringToHGlobalUni multiSource               FileOpStruct pTo   Marshal StringToHGlobalUni multiDest                FileOpStruct fFlags    ushort Win32 ShellFileOperationFlags FOF NOCONFIRMATION              FileOpStruct lpszProgressTitle                   FileOpStruct fAnyOperationsAborted   0              FileOpStruct hNameMappings   IntPtr Zero               int retval   Win32 SHFileOperation ref FileOpStruct                if retval    0  return false              return true

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Or  if you want to go the hard way  add a reference to your project for Microsoft VisualBasic and then use the following   Microsoft VisualBasic FileIO FileSystem CopyDirectory fromDirectory  toDirectory     However  using one of the recursive functions is a better way to go since it won t have to load the VB dll

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Sorry for the previous code  it still had bugs     fell prey to the fastest gun problem      Here it is tested and working  The key is the SearchOption AllDirectories  which eliminates the need for explicit recursion   string path    C   a   string   dirs   Directory GetDirectories path         SearchOption AllDirectories   string newpath    C   x   try       Directory CreateDirectory newpath     catch  IOException ex        Console WriteLine ex Message     for  int j   0  j  lt  dirs Length  j          try               Directory CreateDirectory dirs j  Replace path  newpath              catch  IOException ex                Console WriteLine ex Message            string   files   Directory GetFiles path         SearchOption AllDirectories   for  int j   0  j  lt  files Length  j                      try               File Copy files j   files j  Replace path  newpath              catch  IOException ex                Console WriteLine ex Message

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Better than any code  extension method to DirectoryInfo with recursion   public static bool CopyTo this DirectoryInfo source  string destination                try                       foreach  string dirPath in Directory GetDirectories source FullName                                 var newDirPath   dirPath Replace source FullName  destination                   Directory CreateDirectory newDirPath                   new DirectoryInfo dirPath  CopyTo newDirPath                               Copy all the files  amp  Replaces any files with the same name             foreach  string filePath in Directory GetFiles source FullName                                 File Copy filePath  filePath Replace source FullName destination   true                             return true                    catch  IOException exp                        return false

[c#] Copy the entire contents of a directory in C#

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