Copy

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The copy command can be used from the Command Prompt to copy one or more files from one directory to another.

Contents

Usage

The syntax of the command is pretty simple, just type copy, the name of the source file and the name of the destination file.

copy <sourcefile> <destfile>

Copy Without Prompting for Overwrite

By default the copy command will prompt you any time you try to overwrite a file. This can get really annoying, so you can use the /y option to prevent the confirmation question.

copy / y filename newfilename

Full Syntax

If you use the /? switch for the command, you can see the full syntax for the command:

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).

See Also