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 class

Answer 1

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));

Answer 2

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));
}

Answer 3

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;
    }
}

Answer 4

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;
        }
    }
}

Answer 5

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));
    }
}

Answer 6

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);
            }
    }