/IS switch not working as intended (1 Viewer)

[conception_native_0123]

arnelgp help me with this not too long ago. but it is not working the way i want. here is my file now

@echo off
echo Overwriting files in [C:\Users\u\2] and all its subdirectories...
robocopy "C:\Users\u\1" "C:\Users\u\2 /E /IS
exit

i have many files in C:\Users\u\1 that have newed modified dates than they have in u\2. the same file names are in both. but files are not being overwritten in any subfolder below u\2. just files in "u\2" top level directory being overwritten. "E" switch causes ALL files in all subfolders from u\1 to overwrite equivalents in u\2, but i do not want this. only overwrite files into u\2 that have newer date modified stamps. /IS switch is supposed to do this is it? i am lost. what am i supposed to do? thanks.

this is my other thread where i learned the /IS switch.

robocopy not working...

where is arnelgp? need him again! my robocopy is stopping without going through with first command. i do not know how to print out errors with pipe or anything. it just breaking on first command. even when i run with second command only, it not working. here is my whole script @echo off...

www.access-programmers.co.uk

 

[The_Doc_Man]

Here is a link to the description of ROBOCOPY

Robocopy

Reference article for the robocopy command, which copies file data from one location to another.

docs.microsoft.com

The description of selection option /IS does not match what you described here. The /IS option is meant to include copying files with the same name, type, size, times, and all attributes. That is, it would explicitly overwrite files that probably DON'T need to be overwritten because they are already the same. (/IS = "include same")

I'm thinking from your description ("only overwrite files into u\2 that have newer date modified stamps") that MAYBE you really wanted the /XN (/XN="exclude newer") option, which would exclude existing files if the destination copy is newer than the source. At least that is how I read it.

 

[conception_native_0123]

I'm thinking from your description ("only overwrite files into u\2 that have newer date modified stamps") that MAYBE you really wanted the /XN (/XN="exclude newer") option, which would exclude existing files if the destination copy is newer than the source. At least that is how I read it.

doc man i do not think article is correct. this is what seemed to work for me

/xo	Excludes existing files older than the copy in the source directory.

that make no sense. so, what it did is exactly what i wanted, but it INCLUDE newer files from the source and EXCLUDED older files from the source. so microsoft description of what it does make no sense. in my mind it should have said this

/xo	Copies files from the source directory that are newer than files in the target directory.

it does not matter though because /XO is the solution apparently. thank you for the article. i just guessed the answer the first time because /XN copied files that had nothing to do with what I wanted. problem solved!

 

[The_Doc_Man]

So you are suggesting that the article is written incorrectly? Wish I could say that has never happened before, but the sad truth is that even MS has people writing their articles and people make misteaks.

Glad to have helped. To be honest, that one was a new CMD verb for me, so I learned something as well.

 

[conception_native_0123]

To be honest, that one was a new CMD verb for me, so I learned something as well.

woudl never havve guessed that I could get an expert like you to learn something! ha ha

 

[The_Doc_Man]

The day I have stopped learning, you should check my pulse to see if I still have one.

 

[conception_native_0123]

The day I have stopped learning, you should check my pulse to see if I still have one.

many people would say that attitude is the best in the world.