COPY

Copies files. See also MOVE, XCOPY and ROBOCOPY.

Examples:

copy F:\File.txt
Copies the file into the current directory, assuming the current directory is not F:\.
copy "F:\My File.txt"
As above; quotation marks are needed to surround a file with spaces.
copy F:\*.txt
Copies the files located at F:\ and ending in dot txt into the current directory, assuming the current directory is not F:\.
copy F:\*.txt .
Does the same as the above command.
copy File.txt
Issues an error message, as File.txt cannot be copied over itself.
copy File1.txt File2.txt
Copies File1.txt to File2.txt, overwriting File2.txt if confirmed by the user or if run from a batch script.
copy File.txt "My Directory"
Copies File.txt into My Directory directory, assuming My Directory exists.
copy Dir1 Dir2
Copies all files directly located in directory Dir1 into Dir2, assuming Dir1 and Dir2 are directories. Does not copy files located in nested directories of Dir1.
copy *.txt *.bak
For each *.txt file in the current folder, makes a copy ending with bak rather than txt.

Links:

$ copy /?
Copies one or more files to another location.

COPY [/D] [/V] [/N] [/Y | /-Y] [/Z] [/L] [/A | /B ] source [/A | /B]
     [+ source [/A | /B] [+ ...]] [destination [/A | /B]]

  source       Specifies the file or files to be copied.
  /A           Indicates an ASCII text file.
  /B           Indicates a binary file.
  /D           Allow the destination file to be created decrypted
  destination  Specifies the directory and/or filename for the new file(s).
  /V           Verifies that new files are written correctly.
  /N           Uses short filename, if available, when copying a file with a
               non-8dot3 name.
  /Y           Suppresses prompting to confirm you want to overwrite an
               existing destination file.
  /-Y          Causes prompting to confirm you want to overwrite an
               existing destination file.
  /Z           Copies networked files in restartable mode.
  /L           If the source is a symbolic link, copy the link to the target
               instead of the actual file the source link points to.

The switch /Y may be preset in the COPYCMD environment variable.
This may be overridden with /-Y on the command line.  Default is
to prompt on overwrites unless COPY command is being executed from
within a batch script.

To append files, specify a single file for destination, but multiple files
for source (using wildcards or file1+file2+file3 format).

Found a mistake? Have a question or improvement idea? Let me know.

Table Of Contents