Question

I’m trying to copy the contents of multiple folders within the same directory into one new file. All the files I want to copy have the extension .sql.

When I try this – with one directory – it works:

directory>copy *.sql copy.sql

but when I try

directory>copy */*.sql copy.sql

I get

The syntax of the command is incorrect.

What am I doing wrong? I think I’m following the directions on this site correctly, but am I?

I’m not sure if this makes a difference, but I’m using Windows 7.

TIA!

Answer 1

I don’t think this would work. Standard Windows command shells won’t do wildcard matching on path components, just the final part of the path argument. As well, you’ve got a forward slash in there, which is used for command arguments

C:\> dir win*
 Volume in drive C is BSOD
 Volume Serial Number is 4AFF-AE03

 Directory of C:\

03/01/2011  07:58 AM    <DIR>          Windows
               0 File(s)              0 bytes
               1 Dir(s)  393,128,820,736 bytes free

as expected, but doing

C:\> dir win*\sys*
The filename, directory name, or volume label syntax is incorrect.

and

C:\> dir windows\sys*
 Volume in drive C is BSOD
 Volume Serial Number is 4AFF-AE03

 Directory of C:\windows

13/07/2009  08:36 PM    <DIR>          system
10/06/2009  03:08 PM               219 system.ini
10/02/2011  07:55 AM    <DIR>          System32
09/02/2011  04:33 PM    <DIR>          SysWOW64
               1 File(s)            219 bytes
               3 Dir(s)  393,128,816,640 bytes free