copyfiles

What is copyfiles?

The copyfiles npm package is a tool designed for copying files from one location to another within a file system. It is particularly useful in build processes and scripts where you need to move files around in a cross-platform compatible way. It supports features like glob patterns for file selection, creating directories as needed, and specifying the depth of directories to copy.

What are copyfiles's main functionalities?

Basic file copying

This command copies all .txt files from 'path/to/source' to 'path/to/destination', flattening the directory structure by one level.

copyfiles -u 1 path/to/source/*.txt path/to/destination

Copying with directory structure

Copies all .html files from 'path/to/source' to 'path/to/destination', preserving the directory structure.

copyfiles path/to/source/**/*.html path/to/destination

Verbose output

Copies all .css files from 'path/to/source' to 'path/to/destination' with verbose output, showing the files as they are copied.

copyfiles -v path/to/source/*.css path/to/destination

Other packages similar to copyfiles

ncp

ncp (node-copy-paste) is a Node.js package that provides asynchronous recursive file & directory copying. Compared to copyfiles, ncp offers a more programmatic API and supports copying directories recursively, but it does not support glob patterns directly.

fs-extra

fs-extra adds file system methods that aren't included in the native fs module and adds promise support to fs methods. It includes 'copy' and 'copySync' for copying files and directories. fs-extra is more comprehensive than copyfiles as it provides a wide range of file system operations beyond copying.

cpy

cpy is a Node.js module to copy files. It supports copying multiple files and glob patterns, similar to copyfiles. cpy provides a promise-based API, making it a good choice for use in asynchronous workflows. It's comparable to copyfiles but with a focus on promises and modern JavaScript syntax.

README

copyfiles

copy files easily

Install

npm install copyfiles -g

Command Line

  Usage: copyfiles [options] inFile [more files ...] outDirectory

  Options:
    -u, --up       slice a path off the bottom of the paths               [number]
    -a, --all      include files & directories begining with a dot (.)   [boolean]
    -f, --flat     flatten the output                                    [boolean]
    -e, --exclude  pattern or glob to exclude (may be passed multiple times)
    -E, --error    throw error if nothing is copied                      [boolean]
    -V, --verbose  print more information to console                     [boolean]
    -s, --soft     do not overwrite destination files if they exist      [boolean]
    -F, --follow   follow symbolink links                                [boolean]
    -v, --version  Show version number                                   [boolean]
    -h, --help     Show help                                             [boolean]

copy some files, give it a bunch of arguments, (which can include globs), the last one is the out directory (which it will create if necessary). Note: on windows globs must be double quoted, everybody else can quote however they please.

copyfiles foo foobar foo/bar/*.js out

you now have a directory called out, with the files foo and foobar in it, it also has a directory named foo with a directory named bar in it that has all the files from foo/bar that match the glob.

If all the files are in a folder that you don't want in the path out path, ex:

copyfiles something/*.js out

which would put all the js files in out/something, you can use the --up (or -u) option

copyfiles -u 1 something/*.js out

which would put all the js files in out

you can also just do -f which will flatten all the output into one directory, so with files ./foo/a.txt and ./foo/bar/b.txt

copyfiles -f ./foo/*.txt ./foo/bar/*.txt out

will put a.txt and b.txt into out

if your terminal doesn't support globstars then you can quote them

copyfiles -f ./foo/**/*.txt out

does not work by default on a mac

but

copyfiles -f "./foo/**/*.txt" out

does.

You could quote globstars as a part of input:

copyfiles some.json "./some_folder/*.json" ./dist/ && echo 'JSON files copied.'

You can use the -e option to exclude some files from the pattern, so to exclude all all files ending in .test.js you could do

copyfiles -e "**/*.test.js" -f ./foo/**/*.js out

Other options include

• -a or --all which includes files that start with a dot.
• -s or --soft to soft copy, which will not overwrite existing files.
• -F or --follow which follows symbolinks

copyup

also creates a copyup command which is identical to copyfiles but -up defaults to 1

Programic API

var copyfiles = require('copyfiles');

copyfiles([paths], opt, callback);

takes an array of paths, last one is the destination path, also takes an optional argument which the -u option if a number, otherwise if it's true it's the flat option or if it is an object it is a hash of the various options (the long version e.g. up, all, flat, exclude, error, verbose, follow, and soft)

Tilde support for home directory

when the src/dest path start with tilde for home directory under windows, please make sure -u or -f is added in options or use copyup command. if not you will get Error: Illegal characters in path.