# xcopy is the best program in windows



## LizardKing (Sep 19, 2009)

Fuck Explorer, gimme a DOS prompt and xcopy and I'll move that shit around in ways Explorer cannot even comprehend. I don't need a backup program, I've got xcopy! Copy everything modified after a certain date? No problem! Copy everything in 50 different folders except the pictures? Piece of cake! Just create a directory structure instead? Done!

Inb4 perl/bash scripts


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## ToeClaws (Sep 19, 2009)

*laughs* Agreed.  When they first included that back in the DOS days, it was god-like.  Up until then, the copy command had been pretty useless by comparison.


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## net-cat (Sep 19, 2009)

xcopy is great until you need to move big files or many files around and it spits out "Insufficient memory."


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## LizardKing (Sep 19, 2009)

net-cat said:


> xcopy is great until you need to move big files or many files around and it spits out "Insufficient memory."



Moved about ~2,500 files earlier. Any idea what the limits would be?


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## net-cat (Sep 19, 2009)

No idea. I think the limit is actually imposed on large files more than many files. But I've definitely seen it before.


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## LizardKing (Sep 19, 2009)

net-cat said:


> No idea. I think the limit is actually imposed on large files more than many files. But I've definitely seen it before.



Well I'm not going to be moving around databases or anything, so I should be okay :3


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## net-cat (Sep 19, 2009)

How about movies or ISO images? That's usually what does it for me.


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## LizardKing (Sep 19, 2009)

net-cat said:


> How about movies or ISO images? That's usually what does it for me.



Those sorts of things usually just get burnt straight to DVD and such, I've never really had to move them around much. Once they're in the right folder, they stay there until I delete them.


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## ToeClaws (Sep 19, 2009)

That memory error is actually caused by its limitation of a 254 character file name.  I'm not sure if it has size limitations with it's NTFS updated version.  There does exist a freeware version called XXcopy which supposedly does not have the 254 character name limit, though I've not personally tried it.


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## net-cat (Sep 19, 2009)

Well, that's what we use at my weekend job (last day!) to copy data off of people's hard drives.

That's also the environment that xcopy runs into issues.


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## LizardKing (Sep 19, 2009)

xcopy is really quite great
It means I don't get home late
But with long file names
It plays silly games
And fills up my hard drive with hate


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## LizardKing (Sep 20, 2009)

SnowFox said:
			
		

> Oh and the xcopy thread <3 I've been using it a lot recently too, I just wish there was a way to specify certain file extensions.



Just one type of file?
Make the source more specific
Like *.jpg

For multiple types
Run xcopy a few times
Adjust source to match

To make things easy
Just write down the ones you want
Inside a batch file


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## Dyluck (Sep 20, 2009)

I saw a really nerdy porno one time called "XXXcopy"


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## Carenath (Sep 20, 2009)

net-cat said:


> xcopy is great until you need to move big files or many files around and it spits out "Insufficient memory."


find + cp = win.


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## LizardKing (Sep 20, 2009)

Carenath said:


> cp = win.



I could not resist
Quotes out of context are fun
Now where is Shenzi?

xcopy is good
It has no bells or whistles
Just does what I need


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## net-cat (Sep 20, 2009)

Carenath said:


> find + cp = win.



find works with cp? I always used it with cpio.


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## Runefox (Sep 20, 2009)

If you like xcopy, you'll _love_ robocopy (Grab it here if you don't have Vista or later; It's included by default on those systems (this is a collection of tools; They can be copied out of it onto a USB drive or similar if necessary, and are automatically added the the PATH of the machine the resource kit is installed on). It's far more robust (hence the name), offers a lot of options as to how to handle the files (complete with date/timestamp and security/permissions preservation), and even offers a mirror mode, which deletes files in the destination that are no longer present in the source - Excellent for backup snapshots. For a relatively good GUI, see RichCopy, which I'm not sure uses Robocopy (there are several that do), but offers the same kinds of options.

Oh yeah, the Win2k3 Resource Kit comes with other goodies like a Keyboard Remapper, tail (like *NIX), a screensaver that automatically _logs you off_ after a specified period of inactivity, an RPC ping tool, and a bunch of others.


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## SnowFox (Sep 20, 2009)

LizardKing said:


> Just one type of file?
> Make the source more specific
> Like *.jpg
> 
> ...



Yeah I've resorted to just running it several times. The most recent thing I was trying to do was copy music over to my mp3 player (a mix of .mp3, .wma, etc). The source folders are littered with random .jpg .rar, desktop.ini files.
If I'm going to bother making a batch file I'll probably spend a few hours on it and make it really cool, then decide batch is too limited so then I'll end up writing something in C, then get over ambitious and end up having to take a break from it for a few days then come back to it and forget what the hell I was trying to do, give up and go back to running xcopy a few times for each file type.

That's usually what happens anyway.

P.S. How sweet of you to answer my post from the other thread that some mod fag locked. <3


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## Carenath (Sep 20, 2009)

net-cat said:


> find works with cp? I always used it with cpio.


Yes, find is quite useful for working with files, particularly large batches of them.


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