Recursive Directory Copying

Using CopyFile and FindFirstFile win32 base API to recursively copy a directory in code.

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Environment: Tested on VC6 for 2000 sp3:

I always needed something similar to the xcopy command in code. I finally got around to writing something. This code consists of four functions that reproduce the results of using the following xcopy command:

xcopy /s /e source_directory destination_directory

The win32 CopyFile and FindFirst/NextFile functions are also used. For discerning directories from files the WIN32_FIND_DATA structure are analyzed.

There are a few points to note about the code. Firstly, the FindFirstFile function is used to enumerate through a directories contents (even though it is designed for finding a file if it is given wildcards it can find all files that fit a wildcard—*.* in this example).

tstring tSourceFile, tDestinationFile, tPath = lpszSource;
tPath+=_T(“\*.*”);
HANDLE hFind = ::FindFirstFile(tPath.c_str(),
                               &Fil! eInfo);

Secondly, the WIN32_FIND_DATA structure is analyzed to determine whether the current item is a directory using a mask:

if(FileInfo.dwFileAttributes & FILE_ATTRIBUTE_DIRECTORY)

The “.” and “..” items exist in all directories and serve the exact purpose they do on the command line. Namely, if you call FindFirstFile with some path ending in “.” it will give you a listing of files in the current directory. This is why the “.” and “..” are ignored in the recursive helper.

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