How to exclude subdirectories in the destination while using /mir /xd switch in robocopy

落爺英雄遲暮 提交于 2019-12-03 09:50:26

When i tried the solution with /XD i found, that the path to exclude should be the source path - not the destination.

e.g. this Works

robocopy c:\test\a c:\test\b /MIR /XD c:\test\a\leavethisdiralone\

Rather than creating empty directories in source to exclude, you can supply the full destination path to the /XD switch to have the destination directories untouched

robocopy "%SOURCE_PATH%" "%DEST_PATH%" /MIR /XD "%DEST_PATH%"\hq04s2dba301

The way you can exclude a destination directory while using the /mir is by making sure the destination directory also exists on the source. I went into my source drive and created blank directories with the same name as on the destination, and then added that directory name to the /xd. It successfully mirrored everything while excluding the directory on the source, thereby leaving the directory on the destination in tact.

The argument order seems to matter... to exclude subdirectories, I used

robocopy \\source\folder C:\destinationfolder /XD * /MIR

...and that works for me (Windows 10 copy from Windows Server 2016)

The issue is that even though we add a folder to skip list it will be deleted if it does not exist.

The solution is to add both the destination and the source folder with full path.

I will try to explain the different scenarios and what happens below, based on my experience.

Starting folder structure:

d:\Temp\source\1.txt
d:\Temp\source\2\2.txt

Command:

robocopy D:\Temp\source D:\Temp\dest /MIR

This will copy over all the files and folders that are missing and deletes all the files and folders that cannot be found in the source

Let's add a new folder and then add it to the command to skip it.

New structure:

d:\Temp\source\1.txt
d:\Temp\source\2\2.txt
d:\Temp\source\3\3.txt

Command:

robocopy D:\Temp\source D:\Temp\dest /MIR /XD "D:\Temp\source\3"        

If I add /XD with the source folder and run the command it all seems good the command it wont copy it over.

Now add a folder to the destination to get this setup:

d:\Temp\source\1.txt
d:\Temp\source\2\2.txt
d:\Temp\source\3\3.txt

d:\Temp\dest\1.txt
d:\Temp\dest\2\2.txt
d:\Temp\dest\3\4.txt

If I run the command it is still fine, 4.txt stays there 3.txt is not copied over. All is fine.

But, if I delete the source folder "d:\Temp\source\3" then the destination folder and the file are deleted even though it is on the skip list

                       1    D:\Temp\source\
    *EXTRA Dir        -1    D:\Temp\dest\3\
      *EXTRA File                  4        4.txt
                       1    D:\Temp\source\2\

If I change the command to skip the destination folder instead then the folder is not deleted, when the folder is missing from the source.

robocopy D:\Temp\source D:\Temp\dest /MIR /XD "D:\Temp\dest\3"

On the other hand if the folder exists and there are files it will copy them over and delete them:

                       1    D:\Temp\source\3\
          *EXTRA File                  4        4.txt
100%        New File                   4        3.txt

To make sure the folder is always skipped and no files are copied over even if the source or destination folder is missing we have to add both to the skip list:

robocopy D:\Temp\source D:\Temp\dest /MIR /XD "d:\Temp\source\3" "D:\Temp\dest\3"

After this no matters if the source folder is missing or the destination folder is missing, robocopy will leave it as it is.

Within the robocopy help file the /MIR option is explained as follows.

/MIR :: MIRror a directory tree (equivalent to /E plus /PURGE).

Here is the explanation for the /E and /PURGE switches:

/E :: copy subdirectories, including Empty ones.

/PURGE :: delete dest files/dirs that no longer exist in source.

You could avoid deleting those subdirectories by swapping in "/E" for "/MIR" in your robocopy command. However, this solution turns off purging altogether which does not seem to be your desired result. In that case, you would want to move forward with your /XD switch option.

For reference, you may want to push out the help file to a text document.

Robocopy /? > RobocopySwitches.txt
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