This example demonstrates how to use I/O classes to synchronously copy the contents of a directory to another location. In this example, the user can specify whether to also copy the subdirectories. If the subdirectories are copied, the method in this example recursively copies them by calling itself on each subsequent subdirectory until there are no more to copy.
For an example of copying files asynchronously, see Asynchronous File I/O.
Example
using System;
using System.IO;
class DirectoryCopyExample
{
static void Main()
{
// Copy from the current directory, include subdirectories.
DirectoryCopy(".", @".\temp", true);
}
private static void DirectoryCopy(string sourceDirName, string destDirName, bool copySubDirs)
{
// Get the subdirectories for the specified directory.
DirectoryInfo dir = new DirectoryInfo(sourceDirName);
if (!dir.Exists)
{
throw new DirectoryNotFoundException(
"Source directory does not exist or could not be found: "
+ sourceDirName);
}
DirectoryInfo[] dirs = dir.GetDirectories();
// If the destination directory doesn't exist, create it.
if (!Directory.Exists(destDirName))
{
Directory.CreateDirectory(destDirName);
}
// Get the files in the directory and copy them to the new location.
FileInfo[] files = dir.GetFiles();
foreach (FileInfo file in files)
{
string temppath = Path.Combine(destDirName, file.Name);
file.CopyTo(temppath, false);
}
// If copying subdirectories, copy them and their contents to new location.
if (copySubDirs)
{
foreach (DirectoryInfo subdir in dirs)
{
string temppath = Path.Combine(destDirName, subdir.Name);
DirectoryCopy(subdir.FullName, temppath, copySubDirs);
}
}
}
}
Imports System
Imports System.IO
Class DirectoryCopyExample
Shared Sub Main()
' Copy from the current directory, include subdirectories.
DirectoryCopy(".", ".\\temp", True)
End Sub
Private Shared Sub DirectoryCopy( _
ByVal sourceDirName As String, _
ByVal destDirName As String, _
ByVal copySubDirs As Boolean)
' Get the subdirectories for the specified directory.
Dim dir As DirectoryInfo = New DirectoryInfo(sourceDirName)
If Not dir.Exists Then
Throw New DirectoryNotFoundException( _
"Source directory does not exist or could not be found: " _
+ sourceDirName)
End If
Dim dirs As DirectoryInfo() = dir.GetDirectories()
' If the destination directory doesn't exist, create it.
If Not Directory.Exists(destDirName) Then
Directory.CreateDirectory(destDirName)
End If
' Get the files in the directory and copy them to the new location.
Dim files As FileInfo() = dir.GetFiles()
For Each file In files
Dim temppath As String = Path.Combine(destDirName, file.Name)
file.CopyTo(temppath, False)
Next file
' If copying subdirectories, copy them and their contents to new location.
If copySubDirs Then
For Each subdir In dirs
Dim temppath As String = Path.Combine(destDirName, subdir.Name)
DirectoryCopy(subdir.FullName, temppath, copySubDirs)
Next subdir
End If
End Sub
End Class
See Also
FileInfo
DirectoryInfo
FileStream
File and Stream I/O
Common I/O Tasks
Asynchronous File I/O



