VS 2012: Post Build xcopy error 2

Question

i want to make VS copy the .lib-file it created after the build process to a specific folder. So i went to the project config, post-build event, and entered the following command:

if exist $(TargetPath)
xcopy "$(TargetPath)" "C:\Users\Incubbus\Documents\Visual Studio 2010\My Libraries\z.lib" /Y

But instead of copying the process fails after i click "build" and i receive the following error:

error MSB3073: The command "if exist C:\Users\Incubbus\Documents\Visual Studio 2010\My Libraries\MyNetWorkProject\Debug\IncNetworkLibD.lib xcopy "C:\Users\Incubbus\Documents\Visual Studio 2010\My Libraries\MyNetWorkProject\Debug\IncNetworkLibD.lib" "C:\Users\Incubbus\Documents\Visual Studio 2010\My Libraries\z.lib" /Y

:VCEnd" exited with code 2.

I am also wondering about the :VCEnd in the command-string of the error message <- Maybe this is the reason? How to get this solved?

Any help and hints would be happily consumed :)...

partial solution:

EDIT: it looks like the renaming part (Inc.lib to z.lib) makes trouble, when xcopy asks whether this is a file or a directory...it works when i just copy the originally named file to a directory instead of copying renamed

Whichever

Copy/paste the PostBuildEvent from your project file into your question. Don't edit it, make it look exactly the same way. – Underage

it looks like the renaming part (Inc.lib to z.lib) makes trouble, when xcopy asks wether this is a file or a directory... this works when i just copy the lib-file to a directory without renaming it... – Whichever

https://mcmap.net/q/77327/-why-does-the-command-xcopy-in-batch-file-ask-for-file-or-folder one possible way to resolve it. By echo f | xcopy ... you would just say 'file' to xcopy. – Radiant

works, thx... if you post it as an answer i can mark the question as answered... – Whichever

Answer 1

Xcopy documentation says the following:

Specifying whether Destination is a file or directory If Destination does not contain an existing directory and does not end with a backslash (\), the following message appears:

Does destination specify a file name 
or directory name on the target 
(F = file, D = directory)? 

Press F if you want the file or files to be copied to a file. Press D if you want the file or files to be copied to a directory.

You can suppress this message by using the /i command-line option, which causes xcopy to assume that the destination is a directory if the source is more than one file or a directory.

You need the opposite, but there is no such switch.

The solution is proposed here: https://mcmap.net/q/77327/-why-does-the-command-xcopy-in-batch-file-ask-for-file-or-folder.

It is suggested to prepend the xcopy command with echo f | prefix, which basically does the following: it simulates a user pressing f key when xcopy asks.

So your command should look like:

if exist $(TargetPath)
echo f | xcopy "$(TargetPath)" "C:\Users\Incubbus\Documents\Visual Studio 2010\My Libraries\z.lib" /Y

Operator | just pipes the output of echo f (== f) into xcopy command and it is read when appropriate. More information about output redirection here: http://ss64.com/nt/syntax-redirection.html.

UPDATE: As Govert points out, this hack won't work under a localized version of Windows. However, another hack will work:

xcopy D:\file.zip c:\renamedFile.zip*

Appending destination file name with an asterisk * makes xcopy not ask whether destination is a file or a directory.

Radiant

This does not work under localised versions of Windows, where the prompt words might be different. An alternative trick is to add an asterisk '*' to the end of the destination, then xcopy won't prompt for File/Directory. – Marela

Why does xcopy not recognize the source and/or target as a file when they have a file extension and why does the asterisk work? @Marela – Personalize

@Personalize I have not idea how xcopy works. It might be a good question to ask Raymond Chen: blogs.msdn.com/b/oldnewthing – Marela

@Personalize Having a dot and some characters after it doesn't make a path a file. Folders can have dot in name, i.e. aaa.txt is a valid folder name. – Andantino

@Andantino Regardless, why does xcopy fail to identify a file as a file, and why does using an asterisk resolve that? (Thanks for the link, Govert) – Personalize

@Personalize There's no file yet only a path and can't decide only based on path what is the target because folder names can have "extensions" a file names may not have extensions. Copying a file to a folder is a valid operation so can't decide on source either. xcopy seems to ignore wildcards for directories probably this is why a path with wildcard is considered to be a file. To avoid confusion and hacks use copy for files. – Andantino

Answer 2

Why don't you use copy instead of xcopy? copy is specifically for files so there will be no confusion.

Andantino

The absolutely simplest answer. THANK YOU. – Wendling

Answer 3

Did you try wrapping the $(TargetPath) in quotes? The ever-so-popular-space-characters-instead-of-underscores-in-all-MS-products tend to mess things up at every corner... Dunno why those dumbos keep doing it...

Like so: if exist "$(TargetPath)"

Night