Question

I have a batch file to copy over files from Visual Studio to my Web folder. I want to copy all files in my web project, EXCEPT for *.cs files. I can’t seem to get this to work:

xcopy /r /d /i /s /y /exclude:".cs" C:\dev\apan C:\web\apan

Any tips? I just get exit code 4 when I try to run this.

Answer 1

The /EXCLUDE: argument expects a file containing a list of excluded files.

So create a file called excludedfileslist.txt containing:

.cs\

Then a command like this:

xcopy /r /d /i /s /y /exclude:excludedfileslist.txt C:\dev\apan C:\web\apan

Alternatively you could use Robocopy, but would require installing / copying a robocopy.exe to the machines.

Update

An anonymous comment edit which simply stated "This Solution exclude also css file!"

This is true creating a excludedfileslist.txt file contain just:

.cs

(note no backslash on the end)

Will also exclude all of the following:

• file1.cs
• file2.css
• dir1.cs\file3.txt
• dir2\anyfile.cs.something.txt

Sometimes people don’t read or understand the XCOPY command’s help, here is an item I would like to highlight:

Using /exclude

• List each string in a separate line in each file. If any of the listed strings match any part of the absolute path of the file to be copied, that file is then excluded from the copying process. For example, if you specify the string "\Obj", you exclude all files underneath the Obj directory. If you specify the string ".obj", you exclude all files with the .obj extension.

As the example states it excludes "all files with the .obj extension" but it doesn’t state that it also excludes files or directories named file1.obj.tmp or dir.obj.output\example2.txt.

There is a way around .css files being excluded also, change the excludedfileslist.txt file to contain just:

.cs\

(note the backslash on the end).

Here is a complete test sequence for your reference:

C:\test1>ver

Microsoft Windows [Version 6.1.7601]

C:\test1>md src
C:\test1>md dst
C:\test1>md src\dir1
C:\test1>md src\dir2.cs
C:\test1>echo "file contents" > src\file1.cs
C:\test1>echo "file contents" > src\file2.css
C:\test1>echo "file contents" > src\dir1\file3.txt
C:\test1>echo "file contents" > src\dir1\file4.cs.txt
C:\test1>echo "file contents" > src\dir2.cs\file5.txt

C:\test1>xcopy /r /i /s /y .\src .\dst
.\src\file1.cs
.\src\file2.css
.\src\dir1\file3.txt
.\src\dir1\file4.cs.txt
.\src\dir2.cs\file5.txt
5 File(s) copied

C:\test1>echo .cs > excludedfileslist.txt
C:\test1>xcopy /r /i /s /y /exclude:excludedfileslist.txt .\src .\dst
.\src\dir1\file3.txt
1 File(s) copied

C:\test1>echo .cs\ > excludedfileslist.txt
C:\test1>xcopy /r /i /s /y /exclude:excludedfileslist.txt .\src .\dst
.\src\file2.css
.\src\dir1\file3.txt
.\src\dir1\file4.cs.txt
3 File(s) copied

This test was completed on a Windows 7 command line and retested on Windows 10 "10.0.14393".

Note that the last example does exclude .\src\dir2.cs\file5.txt which may or may not be unexpected for you.