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

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?

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.

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.

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;
}

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<string> files = GetAllFileAndFolder(source);

            foreach (string file in files)
            {
                KCOPY(file, target);
            }
        }
    }

    private List<string> GetAllFileAndFolder(string path)
    {
        List<string> allFile = new List<string>();
        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) & FileAttributes.Directory) == FileAttributes.Directory)
        {
            return false;
        }
        return true;
    }

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 < 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 < files.Length; j++)            
{
    try
    {
        File.Copy(files[j], files[j].Replace(path, newpath));
    }
    catch (IOException ex)
    {
        Console.WriteLine(ex.Message);
    }
}

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;
}

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);
}

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 & 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;
        }
    }

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) => 
            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);
    }
}

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));

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));
    }
}

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) =>
    {
        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) =>
        CopyEntireDirectory(sourceChildDirectory, new DirectoryInfo(Path.Combine(target.FullName, sourceChildDirectory.Name))));

    Parallel.ForEach(source.GetFiles(), sourceFile =>
        sourceFile.CopyTo(Path.Combine(target.FullName, sourceFile.Name), overwiteFiles));
}

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:
        //     > 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)));
    }

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<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;
        }
    }
}

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);
            }
    }

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.
}

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.

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 = "c:\src";
var dest = "c:\dest";
var cmp = CompressionLevel.NoCompression;
var zip = source_folder + ".zip";

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

Copy folder recursively without recursion to avoid stack overflow.

public static void CopyDirectory(string source, string target)
{
    var stack = new Stack<Folders>();
    stack.Push(new Folders(source, target));

    while (stack.Count > 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;
    }
}

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);
        }
    }
}

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 & 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);
    }