Copy entire directory to output folder maintaining the folder structure?

Question

I want a specific directory to be copied to output folder ("bin") on every build. I think it can be handled via post build scripts. But I'm not sure how to copy a directory itself. I know how to handle specific files.

For eg, this works for a file:

In

Project > Properties > Build Events> Post Build

COPY "$(SolutionDir)Resources\Release Notes.pdf" "$(TargetDir)"

---

But suppose I have a directory Template, now I need everything under Template to come to bin folder upon successful build maintaining the folder structure.

I tried this:

COPY "$(SolutionDir)Resources\Template\" "$(TargetDir)"

Only the files in Template directory gets copied this way and not the sub directories and the files inside Template folder. I want the folder Template itself to come inside my output bin folder. In other words, bin should look like:

bin > Template > abc.xxx  
                 xxx.yyy
                 Subdirectory1 > asd.qwe
                                 zxc.qwe 
                 Subdirectory2 > ...

This could be a duplicate, but I couldn't find a relevant thread. Thanks.

Solution 1

This worked for me. /S is the key which copies everything recursively.

XCOPY "$(SolutionDir)Resources\Template" "$(TargetDir)\Template\" /S

Since I wanted files to be overwritten every time without a prompt, I added a /Y switch as well.

XCOPY "$(SolutionDir)Resources\Template" "$(TargetDir)\Template\" /S /Y

Solution 2

I just added this to my *.csproj file (right click Edit Project File)

<ItemGroup>
    <Content Include="MYCUSTOMFOLDER\**">
        <CopyToOutputDirectory>PreserveNewest</CopyToOutputDirectory>
    </Content>
</ItemGroup>

I think for this the directory needs to be on same hierarchy level as *.csproj file or bellow that.

Solution 3

Try XCOPY instead of COPY; e.g.

XCOPY "$(SolutionDir)Resources\Template\" "$(TargetDir)\Template" /s /i /y

More info on XCOPY here...

http://www.computerhope.com/xcopyhlp.htm

Solution 4

Here's an additional solution working on Visual Studio 2019 as of the date of this post. This will copy the folder structure recursively and all files within. Tested on a C++ .vcxproj in a multi-project solution.

---

First, start by editing your [ .proj / .vcxproj / .csproj ] file. Once open, find your project scoped tag. If you already have ItemGroups within, then paste the code below directly after the existing ones. Otherwise, add it in before the PropertyGroup tags. Then modify the Include & Link parameters for the folder structure you wish to copy to the output path.

<ItemGroup>
    <Content Include="..\Assets\**\*.*">
        <CopyToOutputDirectory>PreserveNewest</CopyToOutputDirectory>
        <DeploymentContent>true</DeploymentContent>
        <Link>Assets\%(RecursiveDir)\%(Filename)%(Extension)</Link>
    </Content>
</ItemGroup>

---

Note: If you have multiple top level folders, like JS, IMG, BIN, etc., then create a new entry for each one.

Solution 5

The solution by CodingYourLife almost worked for me, but I found out that PreserveNewest was not being respected. I found a solution on the Visual Studio forums that works correctly. My .CSPROJ now looks like this:

    <Content Include="assets\**">
        <Link>assets\%(RecursiveDir)\%(Filename)%(Extension)</Link>
        <TargetPath>assets\%(RecursiveDir)\%(Filename)%(Extension)</TargetPath>
        <CopyToOutputDirectory>PreserveNewest</CopyToOutputDirectory>
    </Content>

Note: This solution requires Visual Studio 16.10 or newer.

View more solutions

Comments

[nawfal]

+1 for giving me the right direction. But I did not get your solution working. I needed to specify the target destination Template in the second argument. And I'm not sure if /I is really needed. Instead of editing yours, I made it as a separate answer.

[Justin J Stark]

Note that you can go one directory above the SolutionDir using XCOPY "$(SolutionDir)..\Resources\Template" "$(TargetDir)" /S /I /Y

[Justin J Stark]

/S will ignore empty folders. To copy everything, including empty folders, use /E instead.

[Shiroy]

Is there a way to do this without using the command line. I know you can right click on each individual file and say "Copy to Output Directory" in the properties. But that is fairly cumbersome, but is transparent and less error prone (due to typos).

[nawfal]

@Shiroy You can try bulk editing in csproj files to set "Copy to Output Directory"

[belugabob]

This does, indeed, work. A/ It's a shame that this isn't possible from the VS Solution Explorer, instead 'hacking' the csporj file. B/ When you have large amounts of test data, not only does it slow the build down, it wastes a whole load of disk space

[Noman_1]

This worked for me, I just had to change the build action on the xml. The build action is the element on the ItemGroup itself. So I changed "Content" to "None". This made all the items on the Include property to have the build action "None"

[John]

Worked for me to but why on VS 2019 does it then show every file twice in the solution explorer? Doesn't seem to effect me. Do I have to delete the other ItemGroup that contains one line per sub folder and all the files in it that VS auto creates in the csproj file?

[Gabe Cook]

Having used this solution and XCOPY, this is loads better.

[stigzler]

Great Tip. And agreed - why on earth do MS not include this as a simple Solution Explorer function?

[Desmond]

Thank you. It works, but for others that want to use it and are not familiar with .csproj file, you need to add it inside <Project> ... </Project> and inside a new tag <ItemGroup></ItemGroup>:

[Menasheh]

Worked for me locally with VS 2022, but not on the jenkins build server. Do you know what version of MSBuild is required? Or is there no way to do this with ci?

[vandre]

@Menasheh you need MSBuild 16.10 or newer;