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batch-filexcopy
Bill Walton
Bill Walton

Reputation: 823

How to exclude a specific file from being copied using xcopy

I'm new to Windows batch files, but I'm writing a .bat file that just copies a bunch of files from one place to another maintaining the file directory structure. Using xcopy this is simple but I need to exclude some files from being copied. You can use /exclude and create a text file full of strings that you want to be excluded, but this doesn't just exclude files with the exact names in the text file, it excludes all files whose filenames contain any of the strings in the text file.

What this means is, if I want to exclude any files named 123.txt and put this string in my exclusions text file, if there was a file called 1123.txt anywhere in the source folder or any of its subfolders that would also be excluded.

How can I exclude only files with a specific filename from being copied?

Upvotes: 3

Views: 3507

Answers (2)

lavinio
lavinio

Reputation: 24299

Try creating a temporary folder, xcopying all of the files into that folder, deleting the ones you don't want, then xcopying those to the final destination. Finally, delete the temporary folder and its contents with rd xyzzy /q/s

Upvotes: 0

Sean Chapman
Sean Chapman

Reputation: 352

Evening Bill.

Can you add a slash before each file name? That should work

EG

instead of

123.txt

blah.txt

use

\123.txt

\blah.txt

Upvotes: 4

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