Problem with CopyItem cmdlet

[balubeto]

Hi

I use PowerShell 7.x on Windows 11 Update.

I should copy all the txt files from the Test1 directory to the Test2 directory.

I tried writing

Copy-Item -Path .\Test1\ -Filter *.txt -Destination .\Test2\

but, in the destination directory, the source directory is created instead of copying the txt files. How come?

Thanks

Bye

[#2 · Accepted solution]

@balubeto 

The source path requires a wildcard at the end as shown below. Without this wildcard, the command will copy the directory object only, not the child content.

Copy-Item -Path .\Test1\* -Filter *.txt -Destination .\Test2\

Cheers,

Lain

[#3]

I put some txt files in the working directory and created two subdirectories Test1 and Test2.

Afterwards, I wrote

Copy-Item -path .\* -Filter *.txt -Destination .\Test?\

but it gives me error.

Instead, if I write the two commands ,

Copy-Item -path .\* -Filter *.txt -Destination .\Test1\
Copy-Item -path .\* -Filter *.txt -Destination .\Test2\

the txt files are copied to both directories.

So, why does the wildcard not work?

Thanks

Bye

[#4]

@balubeto 

If you take a look at the commandlet reference below, you'll notice that that the "-Path" parameter states you can use wildcards while the "-Destination" parameter does not.

You'll also notice that "-Path" is a string array (shown as "string[]") where "-Destination" is only a single-valued string.

So, in terms of what these combinations allow and don't allow:

• Path accepts multiple source strings which can include wildcards;
• Destination only accepts a single destination string and no wildcards.

Reference:

• Copy-Item (Microsoft.PowerShell.Management) - PowerShell | Microsoft Learn

If you want to copy a given set of files to multiple destinations then you will have to do exactly what you said, which is use multiple Copy-Item statements.

Cheers,

Lain