copy newer files without keeping folders - powershell

Question

I have a folder with a number of subfolders containing files and want to copy all files to the root folder but only overwrite if newer.
In powershell I can do -
Get-ChildItem D:\VaM\Custom\Atom\Person\Morphs\temp2\female -Recurse -file | Copy-Item -Destination D:\VaM\Custom\Atom\Person\Morphs\female
But this will overwrite all files, I only want to overwrite files if the copied file is newer.
robocopy can overwrite only older this but keeps the folder structure.

Answer 1

Try this
$root = 'D:\VaM\Custom\Atom\Person\Morphs\temp2\female'
[bool]$Delete = $false
Get-ChildItem $root -Recurse -File |
Where-Object {$_.DirectoryName -ne $root } | # Do not touch files already seated in root
ForEach-Object {
$rootNameBrother = Get-Item "$root\$($_.Name)" -ea 0
if($rootNameBrother -and $rootNameBrother.LastWriteTime -lt $_.LastWriteTime) {
# RootFile with same name exists and is Older - Copy and override
Copy-Item -Path $_.FullName -Destination $rootNameBrother.FullName -Force
}
elseif ($rootNameBrother -and $rootNameBrother.LastWriteTime -ge $_.LastWriteTime) {
# RootFile with same name exists and is Newer or same Age
# Delete non root File if allowed
if($Delete) { Remove-Item $_.FullName -Force }
}
}
Set...
$Delete = $true
...if you wish to delete non root files that could not be copied because there already was a file with the same name and greater modiefydate in root.
You also can set the
$VerbosePreference = "Continue"
$WhatIfPreference = "Continue"
variables, just to be safe when you execute the script for the first time.
If you wish to delete all empty subfolder, you can run this:
$allFolders =`
Get-ChildItem $root -Recurse -Directory |
ForEach-Object {
# Add now Depth Script Property
$_ | Add-Member -PassThru -Force -MemberType ScriptProperty -Name Depth -Value {
# Get Depth of folder by looping through each letter and counting the backshlashes
(0..($this.FullName.Length - 1) | ForEach {$this.FullName.Substring($_,1)} | Where-Object {$_ -eq "\"}).Count
}
}
# Sort all Folder by new Depth Property annd Loop throught
$allFolders | Sort -Property Depth -Descending |
ForEach-Object {
# if .GetFileSystemInfos() method return null, the folder is empty
if($_.GetFileSystemInfos().Count -eq 0) {
Remove-Item $_.FullName -Force # Remove Folder
}
}

Answer 2

You can do it like this:
$source = 'D:\VaM\Custom\Atom\Person\Morphs\temp2\female'
$destination = 'D:\VaM\Custom\Atom\Person\Morphs\female'
Get-ChildItem -Path $source -Recurse -File | ForEach-Object {
# try and get the existing file in the destination folder
$destFile = Get-Item -Path (Join-Path -Path $destination -ChildPath $_.Name) -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
if (!$destFile -or $_.LastWriteTime -gt $destFile.LastWriteTime) {
# copy the file if it either did not exist in the destination or if this file is newer
Write-Host "Copying file $($_.Name)"
$_ | Copy-Item -Destination $destination -Force
}
}

Answer 3

I ended up doing this:
Get-ChildItem G:\VaM\Custom\Atom\Person\Morphs\temp2\ -Recurse |
Where-Object { $_.PSIsContainer -eq $true } |
Foreach-Object { robocopy $_.FullName G:\VaM\Custom\Atom\Person\Morphs\female /xo /ndl /np /mt /nfl}
it runs through the directory structure and copys the contents of each directory to the destination but only overwrites older files.