Can I copy multiple named files on the Windows command line using a single “copy” command?

Question

I\'d like to copy several known files to another directory as a part of a post-build event, but don\'t want to have lines and lines of \"copy [file] [destination] [switches]\" i

Answer 1

You can use 'for' either in a batch file or directly from the command prompt:

for %I in (file1.txt file2.txt file3.txt) do copy %I c:\somedir\

Wildcards are supported in the filelist as well:

for %I in (*.txt *.doc *.html) do copy %I c:\somedir\

For more info, just type for /? from a command prompt, or for a much easier to read help use Start->Help and Support and search for "For". On my XP Pro box, it was item 15 in the full text search results.

Answer 2

Use the <Copy> MSBuild task.

Answer 3

XP and Vista replaced xcopy with robocopy, and it will do exactly what you want. The syntax for what you want feels backwards at first, but it does the job:

robocopy source\folder a\dest\folder file1.exe file2.bat file3.dll file4.txt