Copy directory structure with PowerShell - powershell

Question

Is there a way of doing the following in PowerShell?
xcopy \\m1\C$\Online\*.config \\m2\C$\Config-Backup /s
I have tried this:
Copy-Item \\m1\C$\Online\* -Recurse -Destination \\m2\C$\Config-Backup -include *.config
But it does nothing, probably because there are no configuration files in the root. How do I do it?

Answer 1

If you would like to use native PowerShell (with a third party .NET module :P) and also don't want to let long file paths (> 255 characters) halt the copy, you can use this:
# Import AlphaFS .NET module - http://alphafs.codeplex.com/
Import-Module C:\Path\To\AlphaFS\DLL\AlphaFS.dll
# Variables
$SourcePath = "C:\Temp"
$DestPath = "C:\Test"
# RecursePath function.
Function RecursePath([string]$SourcePath, [string]$DestPath){
# for each subdirectory in the current directory..
[Alphaleonis.Win32.Filesystem.Directory]::GetDirectories($SourcePath) | % {
$ShortDirectory = $_
$LongDirectory = [Alphaleonis.Win32.Filesystem.Path]::GetLongPath($ShortDirectory)
# Create the directory on the destination path.
[Alphaleonis.Win32.Filesystem.Directory]::CreateDirectory($LongDirectory.Replace($SourcePath, $DestPath))
# For each file in the current directory..
[Alphaleonis.Win32.Filesystem.Directory]::GetFiles($ShortDirectory) | % {
$ShortFile = $_
$LongFile = [Alphaleonis.Win32.Filesystem.Path]::GetLongPath($ShortFile)
# Copy the file to the destination path.
[Alphaleonis.Win32.Filesystem.File]::Copy($LongFile, $LongFile.Replace($SourcePath, $DestPath), $true)
}
# Loop.
RecursePath $ShortDirectory $DestPath
}
}
# Execute!
RecursePath $SourcePath $DestPath
Please note this code was stripped out of a much larger project of mine, but I gave it a quick test and it seems to work. Hope this helps!

Answer 2

Start-Process xcopy "\\m1\C$\Online\*.config \\m2\C$\Config-Backup /s" -NoNewWindow
:P

Answer 3

The new AlphaFS 2.0 makes this really easy.
Example: Copy a directory recursively
# Set copy options.
PS C:\> $copyOptions = [Alphaleonis.Win32.Filesystem.CopyOptions]::FailIfExists
# Set source and destination directories.
PS C:\> $source = 'C:\sourceDir'
PS C:\> $destination = 'C:\destinationDir'
# Copy directory recursively.
PS C:\> [Alphaleonis.Win32.Filesystem.Directory]::Copy($source, $destination, $copyOptions)
AlphaFS on GitHub

Answer 4

Look into robocopy. It's not a native PowerShell command, but I call it from PowerShell scripts all the time. Works similarly to xcopy only it's way more powerful.