recursive move command on windows

Question

I need to do a .bat copy of a .sh, I don't know much Windows cmd. On Linux I could do

mv ...

or

rsync -a SOURCE/ DEST/ --remove-sent-files --ignore-existing --whole-file

but Windows "move" can't do the same

maybe there is a windows simple alternative, simpler and more performant than

for /R c:\sourceFolder\ %%G in (*) do ( move /Y "%%G" c:\destinationFolder\ )

Linux mv seems to update directories pointer, but the above Windows command will do hard stuff? I guess it's not a good idea for the big folders I need to frequently move

Vlada

Use robocopy, included since Vista, or the older xcopy (which is capable, but requires more work adding switches to get it to work right). – Pastor

Answer 1

The move command can move directories as well as files.

cd /d C:\sourceFolder
rem move the files
for %%i in (*) do move "%%i" C:\destinationFolder
rem move the directories
for /d %%i in (*) do move "%%i" C:\destinationFolder

Mallon

shouldn't this be for %i? (single %?) – Melise

@Melise You need %% if using a batch file, and the question explicitly said it was for a batch file. (Note that the original question also doubled the percent signs.) – Mallon

ah, thank you! i was trying it directly through the command prompt and was wondering why it wasn't working. thanks! – Melise

Is it possible to use the folder path instead of (*)? – Acroterion

So `move * somewhere` does move all files, but directories need to be moved one by one. Sigh... – Courcy

Answer 2

Robocopy did wonders for me:

 robocopy c:\cache c:\cache-2012 ?????-2012*.hash /S /MOV

I used it to move all files with certain mask out of c:\cache and its numerous subdirectories.

Bray

best answer for me (since it is part of recent windows versions) – Hacker

The main problem with robocopy is it doesn't actually move files, but copy them and them delete the original ones. When moving files in the same drive, it's a big difference to be able to actually move the files (it's instant) instead of just copying them (it's a lot slower if you want to move big files). The main point of using the "move" command is it's really fast if moving files in the same drive, but unfortunately it doesn't move subdirectories when using wildcards. – Ava

Answer 3

I know this is an old thread, but since it does not have a correct answer I figured I'd tie it off.

The old DOS command to accomplish this is:

   move <source directory> <destination directory>

So in the OP question:

   move C:\sourceFolder c:\destinationFolder

The folder and everything in the folder (including sub-directories) will be moved.

Oilcan

Just remember that move throws "access denied" if target folder exists – Hogan

Answer 4

XCOPY should do the trick, I use it it in batch files all the time

something like, if you're just trying to target .sh files

XCOPY /E /H /Y /C "%SOURCEDIR%\*.sh" "%TARGETDIR%"  

Let me know if you have more questions

Viridi

xcopy doesn't move files though, just copies them, so you need to delete everything in the source directory afterwards – Maureen

Answer 5

@echo off
setlocal
set DIR=
set OUTPUTDIR=C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\Desktop\sandbox1\output
for /R %DIR% %%a in (*.jpg) do xcopy "%%a" "%OUTPUTDIR%"

Bidding

Answer 6

I don't have a one liner, but here's what I did using CMD and Notepad++...

1. F:> DIR /S /B > moveit.bat This gives you all your file names

2. Use Notepad++ to edit the bat file Replace with Regular Expression, search for ^(.+?)$ and replace with MOVE "$1" %DESTDIR% Save, exit

3. Execute your batch file.

Discernible

Answer 7

For recursive move in windows, a simple move command is ok. Here is the example, I think it would be helpful.

move D:\Dbbackup\*.dmp* D:\Dbbackup\year\month\

Where .dmp is the extension of the file that would be moved to the location recursive folder Dbbackup , then year, then month.

Berserk

That's not a recursive move. Subdirectories will not be moved with that command. The move command doesn't support that, AFAIK. – Ava