Question

I am trying to write a PowerShell script that will copy a subset of files from a source folder and place them into a target folder. I’ve been playing with “copy-item” and “remove-item” for half a day and cannot get the desired or consistent results.

For example, when I run the following cmdlet multiple times, the files end up in different locations?!?!:

copy-item -Path $sourcePath -Destination $destinationPath -Include *.dll -Container -Force -Recurse

I’ve been trying every combination of options and commands I can think of but can’t find the right solution. Since I’m sure that I’m not doing anything atypical, I’m hoping someone can ease my pain and provide me with the proper syntax to use.

The source folder will contain a large number of files with various extensions. For example, all of the following are possible:

• .dll
• .dll.config
• .exe
• .exe.config
• .lastcodeanalysisissucceeded
• .pdb
• .Test.dll
• .vshost.exe
• .xml
• and so on

The script needs to only copy .exe, .dll and .exe.config files excluding any .test.dll and .vshost.exe files. I also need the script to create the target folders if they don’t already exist.

Any help getting me going is appreciated.

Answer 1

try:

$source = "C:\a\*"
$dest =  "C:\b"

dir $source -include *.exe,*.dll,*.exe.config -exclude *.test.dll,*.vshost.exe  -Recurse | 
% {

 $sp = $_.fullName.replace($sourcePath.replace('\*',''), $destPath)

 if (!(Test-Path -path (split-path $sp)))
    {
     New-Item (split-path $sp) -Type Directory
    } 

    copy-item $_.fullname  $sp -force
  }