search and copy files from a directory structure by reading a text file

Question

I have a folder with many subfolders and files in them. I have a text file with the names of the files that I want copied to a separate destination folder. The filenames in the text file do not have path information.

In the destination folder, I want the file and its folder structure recreated. Is there a quick script for that? or a tool? I'm on Windows.

Answer 1

The following PowerShell script should do what you want.

Change the first three variables to fit your environment.

## Q:\Test\2018\06\28\SU_1334840.ps1
#Requires -Version 3

# get files to copy from file in same foler
$FileList = Get-Content '.\FileList.txt'
$BaseSrc = 'X:\Source\path\'
$BaseDst = 'Y:\Destination\path\'

ForEach ($File in $FileList){
   ForEach ($Find in (Get-ChildItem $BaseSrc$File -File -Recurse)) {
       $DestFile = Join-Path $BaseDst ($Find.FullName.Replace($BaseSrc,'') )
       $DestDir = Split-Path $DestFile
       If (!(Test-Path $DestDir)){ MD $DestDir |Out-Null}
       # "Copying {0} to {1}" -f $Find.FullName,$DestFile
       Copy-Item $Find.FullName $DestFile
    }
}

To see what's going on while the script works, remove the # before "Copying...

The script requires at least PowerShell version 3

Depending on the size of your list / the number of files and subdirs in your source tree, this a bit different approach may be faster.

## Q:\Test\2018\06\28\SU_1334840_2.ps1
#Requires -Version 3

# get files to copy from file in same foler
$FileList = Get-Content '.\FileList.txt'
$BaseSrc = 'X:\Source\path\'
$BaseDst = 'Y:\Destination\path\'

ForEach ($File in (Get-ChildItem $BaseSrc -File -Recurse)) {
    If ($File.Name -in $FileList) {
       $DestFile = Join-Path $BaseDst ($File.FullName.Replace($BaseSrc,'') )
       $DestDir = Split-Path $DestFile
       If (!(Test-Path $DestDir)){ MD $DestDir |Out-Null}
       "Copying {0} to {1}" -f $File.FullName,$DestFile
       Copy-Item $File.FullName $DestFile
    }
}

Sample output:

> . Q:\Test\2018\06\28\SU_1334840.ps1
Copying C:\sys\7z.dll to A:\Test\sys\7z.dll
Copying C:\sys\7z.exe to A:\Test\sys\7z.exe
Copying C:\sys\ClipBoard.exe to A:\Test\sys\ClipBoard.exe
Copying C:\sys\ClipBoard.txt to A:\Test\sys\ClipBoard.txt
Copying C:\sys\DUMPHEX.EXE to A:\Test\sys\DUMPHEX.EXE