Question

I have something that makes a new folder with files in every night. Does anyone know how to create a script that will copy the content of the newest/latest folder to a network share and overwrite any of the files and folders in the network share? Been scratching my head for awhile.

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

Something like this might serve your purpose:

SET "src_root=D:\root\for\source\directories"
SET "tgt_path=\\NETWORK\SHARE\target\path"

DIR "%src_root%" /B /AD /O-D /TC > "%TEMP%\dirlist.tmp"
< "%TEMP%\dirlist.tmp" SET /P last_dir=

FOR /D %%I IN ("%tgt_path%\*") DO RD "%%I" /S /Q
DEL "%tgt_path%\*" /Q

XCOPY "%src_root%\%last_dir%\*" "%tgt_path%" /S /E

The src_root variable is supposed to contain the path to the folder where your daily folders are created, and tgt_path is the target path for the latest folder’s contents to copy.

The DIR command is set up to return the contents of the root folder in the following manner:

• no extra information in the output, only names (/B);

• no files, just folders (/AD);

• sort (/O…) the output in the descending (…-…) order of folder date (…D);

• the date is that of the folder’s creation (/TC).

The output is redirected to a temporary file, whose first line is then read into a variable (the SET /P command). That piece of information, together with the root path and the target path, is ultimately used first with deleting, then with copying files.

The deleting is done in two steps: first the folders (the RD command in the FOR /D loop), then the files (DEL). I’d like to note at this point that this script doesn’t assume intervention at any stage on your side, which I understood was your intention. Consequently, it doesn’t expect a confirmation to delete the files and folders at the target path, so, when you run the script, the old contents will be deleted silently (which is the effect of the /Q switch used with both RD and DEL).

The copying is done with XCOPY, as it allows us to retain the structure of the source folder (the /S switch), including empty subdirectories (/E), if any.

You can get more information on every command mentioned here by invoking any of them with the /? switch at the command prompt.