Vista Tutorial - Copy-Item

How do I prevent Copy-Item from overwriting an exsisting file

"JW" <JW@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:3EAB4623-137F-41AD-A4E1-1576431544D5@microsoft.com...
> How do I prevent Copy-Item from overwriting an exsisting file

It shouldn't do that by default unless you specify the -force parameter.

--
Keith

Well on my system it does. According to the documentation the -force switch
only:

"Allows cmdlet to override restrictions such as renaming existing files as
long as security is not compromised"

Which is in my opinion needed when attributes like 'hidden' etc. are
specified.

The command:

Copy-Item C:\test.txt -Destination C:\test\

happily copies test.txt into the C:\test directory clobbering the exsisting
test.txt already present in C:\test

--
JW


"Keith Hill" wrote:

> "JW" <JW@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> news:3EAB4623-137F-41AD-A4E1-1576431544D5@microsoft.com...
> > How do I prevent Copy-Item from overwriting an exsisting file
>
> It shouldn't do that by default unless you specify the -force parameter.
>
> --
> Keith
>

"JW" <JW@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:530C457C-4110-44CC-A556-F1B7B045E2B9@microsoft.com...
> Well on my system it does. According to the documentation the -force
> switch
> only:
>
> "Allows cmdlet to override restrictions such as renaming existing files as
> long as security is not compromised"
>
> Which is in my opinion needed when attributes like 'hidden' etc. are
> specified.
>
> The command:
>
> Copy-Item C:\test.txt -Destination C:\test\
>
> happily copies test.txt into the C:\test directory clobbering the
> exsisting
> test.txt already present in C:\test

Yeah I see the same behavior. It is Move-Item that requires -force to
overwrite a file. Seems a bit inconsistent that Copy-Item doesn't behave
the same way IMO.

--
Keith

Here is a quick little function I just made for a work around. If you dot
source it you can use it when ever you need it.

function SafeCopy {
param ([string]$destination = $(throw "Please specify a destination"),
$confirm = $true)
Process {
$fulldestination = (Get-Item $destination).FullName + '\' + $_.Name
if (Test-Path $fulldestination) {
if ($confirm) {
Write-Warning "File exists"
Copy-Item $_.FullName $fulldestination -confirm
}
}
else {Copy-Item $_.FullName $fulldestination}
}
}


I made it to work in the pipeline so that I didn't have support all the
switches that Copy-Item does. Just use it like this:

PS> Get-ChildItem test.txt | SafeCopy c:\temp $false

That way you can use all the switches of Get-ChildItem and even pass it to
Where for further filtering before actually doing your copy.

-= IJuan =-

"JW" wrote:

> Well on my system it does. According to the documentation the -force switch
> only:
>
> "Allows cmdlet to override restrictions such as renaming existing files as
> long as security is not compromised"
>
> Which is in my opinion needed when attributes like 'hidden' etc. are
> specified.
>
> The command:
>
> Copy-Item C:\test.txt -Destination C:\test\
>
> happily copies test.txt into the C:\test directory clobbering the exsisting
> test.txt already present in C:\test
>
> --
> JW
>
>
> "Keith Hill" wrote:
>
> > "JW" <JW@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> > news:3EAB4623-137F-41AD-A4E1-1576431544D5@microsoft.com...
> > > How do I prevent Copy-Item from overwriting an exsisting file
> >
> > It shouldn't do that by default unless you specify the -force parameter.
> >
> > --
> > Keith
> >