Copy all files and folders using msbuild

Just wondering if someone could help me with some msbuild scripts that I am trying to write. What I would like to do is copy all the files and sub folders from a folder to another folder using msbuild.

{ProjectName}
      |----->Source
      |----->Tools
              |----->Viewer
                       |-----{about 5 sub dirs}

What I need to be able to do is copy all the files and sub folders from the tools folder into the debug folder for the application. This is the code that I have so far.

<ItemGroup>
    <Viewer Include="..\$(ApplicationDirectory)\Tools\viewer\**\*.*" />
</ItemGroup>

<Target Name="BeforeBuild">
    <Copy SourceFiles="@(Viewer)" DestinationFolder="@(Viewer->'$(OutputPath)\\Tools')" />
</Target>

The build script runs but doesn't copy any of the files or folders.

Thanks

I was searching help on this too. It took me a while, but here is what I did that worked really well.

<Target Name="AfterBuild">
	<ItemGroup>
		<ANTLR Include="..\Data\antlrcs\**\*.*" />
	</ItemGroup>
	<Copy SourceFiles="@(ANTLR)" DestinationFolder="$(TargetDir)\%(RecursiveDir)" SkipUnchangedFiles="true" />
</Target>

This recursively copied the contents of the folder named antlrcs to the $(TargetDir).

I think the problem might be in how you're creating your ItemGroup and calling the Copy task. See if this makes sense:

<Project DefaultTargets="Build" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003" ToolsVersion="3.5">
	<PropertyGroup>
		<YourDestinationDirectory>..\SomeDestinationDirectory</YourDestinationDirectory>
		<YourSourceDirectory>..\SomeSourceDirectory</YourSourceDirectory>
	</PropertyGroup>
	
	<Target Name="BeforeBuild">
		<CreateItem Include="$(YourSourceDirectory)\**\*.*">
			<Output TaskParameter="Include" ItemName="YourFilesToCopy" />
		</CreateItem>

		<Copy SourceFiles="@(YourFilesToCopy)"
				DestinationFiles="@(YourFilesToCopy->'$(YourDestinationDirectory)\%(RecursiveDir)%(Filename)%(Extension)')" />
	</Target>
</Project>

I'm kinda new to MSBuild but I find the EXEC Task handy for situation like these. I came across the same challenge in my project and this worked for me and was much simpler. Someone please let me know if it's not a good practice.

<Target Name="CopyToDeployFolder" DependsOnTargets="CompileWebSite">
	<Exec Command="xcopy.exe  $(OutputDirectory) $(DeploymentDirectory) /e" WorkingDirectory="C:\Windows\" />
</Target>

<Project DefaultTargets="Build" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003" ToolsVersion="3.5">
    <PropertyGroup>
    	<YourDestinationDirectory>..\SomeDestinationDirectory</YourDestinationDirectory>
    	<YourSourceDirectory>..\SomeSourceDirectory</YourSourceDirectory>
    </PropertyGroup>

    <Target Name="BeforeBuild">
    	<CreateItem Include="$(YourSourceDirectory)\**\*.*">
    		<Output TaskParameter="Include" ItemName="YourFilesToCopy" />
    	</CreateItem>

    	<Copy SourceFiles="@(YourFilesToCopy)"
    			DestinationFiles="$(YourFilesToCopy)\%(RecursiveDir)" />
    </Target>
</Project>

\**\*.* help to get files from all the folder. RecursiveDir help to put all the file in the respective folder...

Did you try to specify concrete destination directory instead of

DestinationFolder="@(Viewer->'$(OutputPath)\\Tools')" ? 

I'm not very proficient with advanced MSBuild syntax, but

@(Viewer->'$(OutputPath)\\Tools') 

looks weird to me. Script looks good, so the problem might be in values of $(ApplicationDirectory) and $(OutputPath)

Here is a blog post that might be useful:

How To: Recursively Copy Files Using the <Copy> Task

This is the example that worked:

<Project xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">

   <ItemGroup>
      <MySourceFiles Include="c:\MySourceTree\**\*.*"/>
   </ItemGroup>

   <Target Name="CopyFiles">
      <Copy
        SourceFiles="@(MySourceFiles)"
        DestinationFiles="@(MySourceFiles->'c:\MyDestinationTree\%(RecursiveDir)%(Filename)%(Extension)')"
       />
    </Target>

</Project>

source: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/3e54c37h.aspx

This is copy task i used in my own project, it was working perfectly for me that copies folder with sub folders to destination successfully:

<ItemGroup >
<MyProjectSource Include="$(OutputRoot)/MySource/**/*.*" />
</ItemGroup>

<Target Name="AfterCopy" AfterTargets="WebPublish">
<Copy SourceFiles="@(MyProjectSource)" 
 OverwriteReadOnlyFiles="true" DestinationFolder="$(PublishFolder)api/% (RecursiveDir)"/>

In my case i copied a project's publish folder to another destination folder, i think it is similiar with your case.

Personally I have made use of CopyFolder which is part of the SDC Tasks Library.

http://sdctasks.codeplex.com/

The best way to recursively copy files from one directory to another using MSBuild is using Copy task with SourceFiles and DestinationFiles as parameters. For example - To copy all files from build directory to back up directory will be

<PropertyGroup>
<BuildDirectory Condition="'$(BuildDirectory)' == ''">Build</BuildDirectory>
<BackupDirectory Condition="'$(BackupDiretory)' == ''">Backup</BackupDirectory>
</PropertyGroup>

<ItemGroup>
<AllFiles Include="$(MSBuildProjectDirectory)/$(BuildDirectory)/**/*.*" />
</ItemGroup>

<Target Name="Backup">
<Exec Command="if not exist $(BackupDirectory) md $(BackupDirectory)" />
<Copy SourceFiles="@(AllFiles)" DestinationFiles="@(AllFiles-> 
'$(MSBuildProjectDirectory)/$(BackupDirectory)/%(RecursiveDir)/%(Filename)% 
(Extension)')" />
</Target>

Now in above Copy command all source directories are traversed and files are copied to destination directory.

If you are working with typical C++ toolchain, another way to go is to add your files into standard CopyFileToFolders list

<ItemGroup>
  <CopyFileToFolders Include="materials\**\*">
    <DestinationFolders>$(MainOutputDirectory)\Resources\materials\%(RecursiveDir)</DestinationFolders>
  </CopyFileToFolders>
</ItemGroup>

Besides being simple, this is a nice way to go because CopyFilesToFolders task will generate appropriate inputs, outputs and even TLog files therefore making sure that copy operations will run only when one of the input files has changed or one of the output files is missing. With TLog, Visual Studio will also properly recognize project as "up to date" or not (it uses a separate U2DCheck mechanism for that).