xcopy command usage

xcopy command usage

1. Copy file(s) from one project to another using post build event…VS2010

A Question:I have a solution with 3 projects in it. I need to copy a view from one project to another. I'm able to copy the created DLL via post build events like so:

So i want to copy the file in project one '/Views/ModuleHome/Index.cshtml' to a folder in project 2. How do I copy file(s) to my desired project via post-build event? Thanks

An Answer:

xcopy "$(ProjectDir)Views\Home\Index.cshtml" "$(SolutionDir)MEFMVCPOC\Views\Home"

and if you want to copy entire folders:

xcopy /E /Y "$(ProjectDir)Views" "$(SolutionDir)MEFMVCPOC\Views"

Update: here's the working version

xcopy "$(ProjectDir)Views\ModuleAHome\Index.cshtml" "$(SolutionDir)MEFMVCPOC\Views\ModuleAHome\" /Y /I

2. Problem with Post-build event using XCOPY command with EXCLUDE parameter

I'm being frustrated with a post-build command that works when I paste it into a CMD.EXE window, but fails in the VS2008 post-build process.

The EXCLUDE parameter seems to have a bug in that it can not handle filenames with spaces, nor can it handle a value in quotes. Therefore, the simplest way around it is to change the active/current directory to be the one with the exclude file.

Code Snippet

cd $(SolutionDir)
xcopy "$(ProjectDir)controls" "$(TargetDir)..\app1\controls" /y /i /e /exclude:CodeFilesToExclude.txt

Here are some commonly used switches with xcopy:

• /I - treat as a directory if copying multiple files.
• /Q - Do not display the files being copied.
• /S - Copy subdirectories unless empty.
• /E - Copy empty subdirectories.
• /Y - Do not prompt for overwrite of existing files.
• /R - Overwrite read-only files.
• /D Copy only files that are modified in sourcepath
• /y Suppresses prompting to confirm you want to overwrite an existing destination file.
• /s Copies directories and subdirectories except empty ones.
• r Overwrites read-only files.
• /F – Displays full source & 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 )
A little trick – in target you must end with character \ to tell xcopy that target is directory and not file!
3. How to copy any files using Visual Studio’s build events?

I’m writing this post to have a quick reference for how to copy any files recursively using Visual Studio’s build events. VS provides an easy way to automate any steps such as copy/paste of any type of files by it’s pre/post-build events. To access this option, go to the properties of your project and then select the Build Events option where you have access to two command line input fields to specify your pre/post events.

4. Copying Files for your Build – xcopy options

Sometimes you need to copy files out to your build folder prior to running the program. I needed this for a deployment project where I wanted to copy the installer for SQL Server Express for my installation and then run the installer. I had a few errors as I set it up, but finally got everything working. The command line options I ended up using with my xcopy command are obvious once I learned to use them.

An Answer: Go to your project’s properties and go to the Build Events tab. There are two boxes to fill in optionally. I chose the Post-Build Event Command Line, and added the following command. The$(xxx) are project parameters you can use in the build event. As you can see, I use the parameters for my solution’s directory, the project name and the output directory:

xcopy “$(SolutionDir)$(ProjectName)SQLServerSetupx64” “$(SolutionDir)$(ProjectName)$(OutDir)SQLServerSetupx64” /E /I /Y /D

5. Xcopy Deployment of a Windows Forms Application

In this lesson, you will learn how to deploy a Windows Forms XAF application using the Xcopy Deployment method. This method is named after the xcopy command-line utility, which copies files from one location to another. With this method, you copy the application files from the Developer Workstation to a location accessible to end-users.

Instead of the xcopy utility, you can use Windows Explorer or another file manager to copy files. However, in certain cases, the command-line utility may be more convenient than graphical user interface (GUI) tools. To learn more about the xcopy command capabilities, refer to the xcopy document.

6. Using Build Events in Visual Studio to Make Life Easier

It has a picture listing all macro variable values and need to further reference it.

based on what I see, the target folder shall be "$(TargetDir)" because that's where .exe file is located...

The Build Events options in Visual Studio can make your life much easier. I use them primarily to copy files around after building projects, but we can use them to run any commands that we want. Let's take a look at the options, and then I'll show how I use them.

Let's take a look at the "TargetDir" macro. In the value column, we see this expanded out to the full path of the output folder.

But here's why using macros is compelling: If I move this project to a different folder, this TargetDir macro will expand to the new location. If I change the configuration from "Release" to "Debug", the macro will expand to the corresponding output folder (bin\Debug\ vs. bin\Release\).

There are a number of other interesting items. And we can get various levels of detail, depending on our needs. For example, look at the various "Project" macros in the list above.

• ProjectName is just the name of the project itself
• ProjectFileName includes the project name, plus the file extension
• ProjectPath includes the fully-qualified path to the project, and includes the project file name/extension
• ProjectDir is the fully-qualified path to the project, but does *not* include the project file name. it is also where .vcxproj project file resides
• TragetDir : bin\release\
• SolutionDir : where .sln file resides
7. Visual Studio ProTip: Copying Binaries on Pre and Post-Build Macros

Last year I had to spend a fair amount of time working on C and C++ projects in Visual Studio 2013, and one of the tasks that I had to learn how to do was use Visual Studio’s pre-build and post-build events to copy all of my dependent DLLs into the final output folder for my applications.

In C# we take the ability to do this for granted - if we need to add a reference to another project in our Visual Studio solution we just Add Reference –> Projects –> [Project Name] and boom, we’re all set. Visual Studio will automatically copy our dependent binaries into our final /bin/[Release|Debug] folder automatically.

In C/C++ - hellllllllll no. You have to do this all yourself!

Next, we’re going to use some good-ole MS-DOS commands to XCOPY all of the binaries from Akka.Cluster.Tests.MultiNode into the bin directory of Akka.MultiNodeTestRunner. And we’re using MS-DOS commands because PowerShell is for script kiddies, right! Actually… I have no idea if Visual Studio supports PowerShell :p

8. Xcopy command : syntax and examples

Xcopy command Xcopy is a built in command on Windows OS which has advanced features than the basic Copy command. The additional features Xcopy has are listed below.

1. Xcopy can copy directories
2. Xcopy can copy all files including subdirectories recursively and can replicate the source directory structure as is.
3. Xcopy can exclude files based on file name or extension
4. Xcopy can help identify updated files(based on archive attribute or based on a given cutoff date), so it’s useful for incremental backup needs.
9. Visual Studio Post Build Event to Copy DLLs

Adding a post-build event couldn’t be much simpler either. In Visual Studio just right-click on the project you want to add the post-build event for in Solution Explorer and select “Properties”. You can either do that or, with the project selected in Solution Explorer, hit Alt-Enter. The project properties window will display. On the left-hand side, click the “Build Events” tab. You’ll see two boxes there. One is for pre-build events and one is for post-build events.

In the post-build events textbox add the following:

IF NOT ($(ConfigurationName)) == (Debug) GOTO END
cd $(ProjectDir)
copy /y bin\debug\*.dll C:\inetpub\wwwroot\wss\VirtualDirectories\{YOUR SHAREPOINT SITE DIRECTORY}\bin
copy /y bin\debug\*.pdb C:\inetpub\wwwroot\wss\VirtualDirectories\{YOUR SHAREPOINT SITE DIRECTORY}\bin
:END

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