Question

Can anyone tell me what I’ve done wrong with the following code. I receive no errors – it just goes straight to the catch.

import java.io.IOException;
import java.nio.file.Files;
import java.nio.file.Path;
import java.nio.file.Paths;

public class Main {

    public static void main(String[] args) {
         Path source = Paths.get("C:\\Users\\Public\\Pictures\\SamplePictures");
    Path nwdir = Paths.get("D:\\NetbeansProjects\\CopyingFiles\\copiedImages");

    try{
    Files.copy(source, nwdir);
    }catch (IOException e){
        System.out.println("Unsucessful. What a surprise!");
    }
    }
}

Answer 1

If you take a look at the Javadocs of Files.copy, you’ll notice this line (emphasis added):

If the file is a directory then it creates an empty directory in the target location (entries in the directory are not copied). This method can be used with the walkFileTree method to copy a directory and all entries in the directory, or an entire file-tree where required.

So it looks like you need to use that walkFileTree method.

(And as the commenters said, print out exceptions and they’ll often tell you what’s wrong!)