System.IO.Directory.Copy()?

Answer me this, .NET gurus: <primalscream>Why</primal_scream> does the System.IO.Directory class not include a .Copy() method. I can Move(), CreateDirectory(), and even Delete(), but I can't copy a directory and all of its contents recursively? And don't even try to tell me that Directory.Copy() doesn't exist because the .NET team figured that even wannabe programmers like me can create our own .copy() as easily as we can type D-i-r-e-c-t-o-r-y-.-C-o-p-y-(-).

My attempts to workaround this limitation went like this:

In Visual Studio .NET, I typed System.IO.Directory and press the F1 key. Result: learned a lot about the Directory class that didn't help me accomplish the task before me.
Searched for Index for keyword “directory.copy“ in Visual Studio .NET. Result: failure.
Searched VS.NET help for “Directory.Copy“. Result: failure.
Created my own dir.Copy() ... Result: short attention span...disbelief...decided to consult my friend Google.
Searched Google for “Directory.Copy() +.NET“. Result: multiple successful hits. Copied sample code snippets* from Web to my project and was successfully copying directories recursively several minutes later.

Takeaways

Directory.Copy() should exist, and I am by no means the only .NET developer in the world who thinks this[1].
“Directory.Copy” and any other similarly inexplicable class exclusions should in future be added to the MSDN Combined Collection's index, as should a topic that explains why it is not available in the .NET Framework.

[1]http://www.codeproject.com/csharp/copydirectoriesrecursive.asp
http://www.aspemporium.com/aspEmporium/cshrp/howtos/howto.asp?hid=20

And I don't know what this says exactly, but my issue is an international one [http://dobon.net/vb/dotnet/file/copyfolder.html]:

????????Directory.Move??????????????????"Directory.Copy"???????????????.NET Framework????????????????File.Copy????????????????????????

???????????????????(CopyDirectory????)??????????????????????????????

Aha! This just in [from Kit George]: The .NET team is thinking about adding a Copy method to the System.IO.Directory class for Whidbey. http://weblogs.asp.net/bclteam/archive/2004/01/19/60377.aspx

Published 19 February 04 09:59 by KorbyP

Filed under: Visual Studio, Programming

Comment Notification

If you would like to receive an email when updates are made to this post, please register here

Subscribe to this post's comments using RSS

Comments

# Korby Parnell said on February 19, 2004 10:01 AM:

Grrr. .Text displays extended characters in the editor but not on the blog display page. Note to self: must note as SuggestedFeature in .Text wiki.

# Jeff said on February 19, 2004 10:07 AM:

I was gonna say... I saw a blog post a couple of weeks ago about this from someone on the theam and they gave the same answer. It does make sense, but certainly if you can ship something as complex as a DataGrid you can copy a directory. :)

# milbertus said on February 19, 2004 11:49 AM:

Could it have something to do with what Junfeng Zhang recently posted about (http://blogs.msdn.com/junfeng/archive/2004/02/20/76467.aspx)?

# Dominic Morris said on February 23, 2004 3:49 AM:

# Nick said on February 23, 2004 5:36 AM:

I had pretty much the same reaction when lookin for Directory.Rename() or File.Rename()

# Korby Parnell said on March 10, 2004 12:43 PM:

My good friend Justin sends me another C# snippet to copy dirs recursively. Thanks Justin. Your copy()'s more elegant than my copy().;-)

using System;
using System.IO;
namespace Utility.IO
{
public class Filesystem
{
// Copy directory structure recursively
public static void copyDirectory(string src, string dst)
{
String[] files;
if(dst[dst.Length-1]!=Path.DirectorySeparatorChar)
dst+=Path.DirectorySeparatorChar;
if(!Directory.Exists(dst)) Directory.CreateDirectory(dst);
files=Directory.GetFilesystemEntries(src);
foreach(string element in files)
{
// Sub directories
if(Directory.Exists(element))
copyDirectory(element,dst+Path.GetFileName(element));
// files in directory
else
File.Copy(element,dst+Path.GetFileName(element),true);
}
}
}
}

# Joe Malaky said on March 31, 2004 5:32 PM:

Would the CopyFile API call do this more efficiently than the above code?

http://www.webtropy.com/articles/art9-1.asp?f=CopyFile

# MoUsEM@H said on May 12, 2004 6:16 AM:

You have to add Reference from COM Object:
"Microsoft Scripting Runtime"

And then just use the following code:

Private Sub CopyDir()
Dim strSourcePath, strDestinationPath As String
Dim mDirectory As New Scripting.FileSystemObject
'parameter "True" means overwrite if exsts
mDirectory.CopyFolder(strSourcePath, strDestinationPath, True)
End Sub

# Rainer Trummel said on June 3, 2004 2:47 AM:

Of course, everybody used the Microsoft Scripting Runtime in VB6 to copy directories.
but my first law : No COM in .NET !
disallows me to use any COM in .NET :) .

So i will wait til Microsoft will include
System.IO.Directory.Copy!

# Greg Arzoomanian said on June 24, 2004 12:47 PM:

What's especially irritating is that the MS documentation explicitly states that the Directory class *does* provide a copy capability! From http://tinyurl.com/2r3ad:
"Use the Directory class for typical operations such as *copying*, moving, renaming, creating, and deleting directories"

# Mark Davies said on June 28, 2004 3:12 AM:

Thank you Korby for the code. I have corrected a couple of minor case errors, and added a feature that allows the consumer of the function to choose whether or not to recursively copy the directory. Here it is.

public static void CopyDirectory(string sourcePath, string destinationPath, bool recurse)
// The calling function will need to handle the error if sourcePath cannot be found at runtime
{
String[] files;
if (destinationPath[destinationPath.Length-1] != Path.DirectorySeparatorChar)
destinationPath+=Path.DirectorySeparatorChar;
if(!Directory.Exists(destinationPath)) Directory.CreateDirectory(destinationPath);
files = Directory.GetFileSystemEntries (sourcePath);
foreach(string element in files)
{
if (recurse)
{
// copy sub directories (recursively)
if(Directory.Exists(element))
CopyDirectory(element,destinationPath+Path.GetFileName(element), recurse);
// copy files in directory
else
File.Copy(element,destinationPath+Path.GetFileName(element),true);
}
else
{
// only copy files in directory
if(!Directory.Exists(element))
File.Copy(element,destinationPath+Path.GetFileName(element),true);
}
}
}
Cheers
Mark
daviesma@qca.org.uk

# Jonathan Beeston said on July 14, 2004 6:40 AM:

I was looking for the same thing. Thank you for the code.

# Fred said on May 27, 2005 3:28 PM:

' copy the entire contents of the C:\DOCS directory into the
' C:\BACKUP\DOCS directory, overriding existing files.
'
' This code assumes that you added a reference to the
' Microsoft Scripting Runtime type library
that is in the COM Project Reference

Dim fso As New Scripting.FileSystemObject
fso.CopyFolder "c:\docs", "c:\backup\docs", True

# CrazyScntst said on December 29, 2005 1:38 PM:

Here's a slightly cleaner version of the code:

public static void copyDirectory(DirectoryInfo srcPath, DirectoryInfo destPath, bool recursive)
{
if( !destPath.Exists )
destPath.Create();

// copy files
foreach( FileInfo fi in srcPath.GetFiles() )
{
fi.CopyTo( Path.Combine(destPath.FullName, fi.Name), true );
}

// copy directories
if( recursive )
{
foreach( DirectoryInfo di in srcPath.GetDirectories() )
{
copyDirectory( di, new DirectoryInfo( Path.Combine( destPath.FullName, di.Name ) ), recursive );
}
}
}

# Stuart Jones said on March 23, 2006 5:35 PM:

Just wanted to say thanks; your efforts have saved me time! Nice work...

# Dan MacDonald said on May 25, 2006 3:08 PM:

This seem to do what you want

http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/xz2d9afk.aspx

# jdk said on July 16, 2006 8:28 AM:

it works! thanks

# black jack online play said on August 27, 2006 7:21 AM:

Thanks for the great tips about <a href="http://home-owner.kogaryu.com/black-jack-online-play.html"">http://home-owner.kogaryu.com/black-jack-online-play.html" title="black jack online play">black jack online play</a> and [URL=http://home-owner.kogaryu.com/black-jack-online-play.html]black jack online play[/URL]

# holiday ski said on August 27, 2006 9:53 AM:

Thanks for the great tips about <a href="http://approvalcredit.bravehost.com/holiday-ski.html"">http://approvalcredit.bravehost.com/holiday-ski.html" title="holiday ski">holiday ski</a> and [URL=http://approvalcredit.bravehost.com/holiday-ski.html]holiday ski[/URL]

# cheap loan personal said on August 27, 2006 6:45 PM:

Very informative post about <a href="http://debtin.50megs.com/cheap-loan-personal.html"">http://debtin.50megs.com/cheap-loan-personal.html" title="cheap loan personal">cheap loan personal</a> and [URL=http://debtin.50megs.com/cheap-loan-personal.html]cheap loan personal[/URL]

# gambling game said on August 27, 2006 7:20 PM:

Thanks for the great tips about <a href="http://approvalcredit.bravehost.com/gambling-game.html"">http://approvalcredit.bravehost.com/gambling-game.html" title="gambling game">gambling game</a> and [URL=http://approvalcredit.bravehost.com/gambling-game.html]gambling game[/URL]

# adverse credit remortgage said on August 27, 2006 8:02 PM:

Thank you for this great post about <a href="http://eteamz.active.com/personalloan/files/adverse-credit-remortgage.html"">http://eteamz.active.com/personalloan/files/adverse-credit-remortgage.html" title="adverse credit remortgage">adverse credit remortgage</a> and [URL=http://eteamz.active.com/personalloan/files/adverse-credit-remortgage.html]adverse credit remortgage[/URL]

# Li said on September 2, 2006 6:05 AM:

Hi baby!

# ecommerce host said on September 4, 2006 8:25 AM:

Thank you for this great post about <a href="http://eteamz.active.com/debtsolution/files/ecommerce-host.html"">http://eteamz.active.com/debtsolution/files/ecommerce-host.html" title="ecommerce host">ecommerce host</a> and [URL=http://eteamz.active.com/debtsolution/files/ecommerce-host.html]ecommerce host[/URL]

# unsecured loan uk said on September 5, 2006 2:03 PM:

Thank you for this great post about <a href="http://winmoney.50megs.com/unsecured-loan-uk.html"">http://winmoney.50megs.com/unsecured-loan-uk.html" title="unsecured loan uk">unsecured loan uk</a> and [URL=http://winmoney.50megs.com/unsecured-loan-uk.html]unsecured loan uk[/URL]

# debt management counseling said on September 5, 2006 4:51 PM:

Thank you so much for this great post about <a href="http://getfreecredit.bravehost.com/debt-management-counseling.html"">http://getfreecredit.bravehost.com/debt-management-counseling.html" title="debt management counseling">debt management counseling</a> and [URL=http://getfreecredit.bravehost.com/debt-management-counseling.html]debt management counseling[/URL]

# domain register said on September 5, 2006 5:39 PM:

Thank you so much for this great post about <a href="http://eteamz.active.com/debtsolution/files/domain-register.html"">http://eteamz.active.com/debtsolution/files/domain-register.html" title="domain register">domain register</a> and [URL=http://eteamz.active.com/debtsolution/files/domain-register.html]domain register[/URL]

# replicarolex said on September 16, 2006 8:57 AM:

[URL=http://http://replicarolexwatch.ir.pl]replica-rolex-watch[/URL]<a href="http://http://replicarolexwatch.ir.pl">replica rolex watch</a>

# Yahzi said on September 21, 2006 9:29 PM:

I am looking for a solution for VC++ 6.0.

While searching, I found someone actually arguing that DirectoryCopy _should not exist_. They pointed out all sorts of questions and problems.

When you select a folder in Explorer and click "Copy," then "Paste," all of those problems are apparently solved.

How can Microsoft justify requiring everyone, everywhere, to rewrite the same code again and again? This is why our country is going bankrupt. This is what is wrong with the economy. Microsoft should be tried for treason.

# phill said on March 28, 2007 10:38 AM:

Wondering myself where the hell Directory.Copy() is. That sucks ass.

Now I got to write it myself, recursively :-(

ffs.

Anyway thanks for the help guys.

Name (required)
Your URL (optional)
Comments (required)
Remember Me?

Korby Parnell's Social Software Wunderkammer

System.IO.Directory.Copy()?

Comment Notification

Comments

Leave a Comment

Search

This Blog

Tags

Archives

Int'l Flair

social software

techieroll

Syndication