std::filesystem::copy

Copies files and directories, with a variety of options.

The behavior is as follows:

• First, before doing anything else, obtains type and permissions of from by no more than a single call to

• std::filesystem::symlink_status, if copy_options::skip_symlinks, copy_options::copy_symlinks, or copy_options::create_symlinks is present in options
• std::filesystem::status otherwise.

• If necessary, obtains the status of to, by no more than a single call to

• std::filesystem::symlink_status, if copy_options::skip_symlinks or copy_options::create_symlinks is present in options
• std::filesystem::status otherwise (including the case where copy_options::copy_symlinks is present in options

• If either from or to has an implementation-defined file type
• If from does not exist, reports an error.
• If from and to are the same file as determined by std::filesystem::equivalent
• If either from or to is not a regular file, a directory, or a symlink, as determined by std::filesystem::is_other
• If from is a directory, but to is a regular file, reports an error.
• If from is a symbolic link, then

• If copy_options::skip_symlink is present in options, does nothing.
• Otherwise, if to does not exist and copy_options::copy_symlinks is present in options, then behaves as if copy_symlink(from, to)
• Otherwise, reports an error.

• Otherwise, if from is a regular file, then

• If copy_options::directories_only is present in options, does nothing.
• Otherwise, if copy_options::create_symlinks is present in options, creates a symlink to to. Note: from must be an absolute path unless to
• Otherwise, if copy_options::create_hard_links is present in options, creates a hard link to to
• Otherwise, if to is a directory, then behaves as if copy_file(from, to/from.filename(), options) (creates a copy of from as a file in the directory to
• Otherwise, behaves as if copy_file(from, to, options) (copies the file).

• Otherwise, if from is a directory and copy_options::create_symlinks is set in options, reports an error with an error code equal to std::make_error_code ( std::errc::is_a_directory )
• Otherwise, if from is a directory and either options has copy_options::recursive or is copy_options::none

• If to does not exist, first executes create_directory(to, from)
• Then, whether to already existed or was just created, iterates over the files contained in from as if by for ( const std::filesystem::directory_entry & x : std::filesystem::directory_iterator (from) ) and for each directory entry, recursively calls copy(x.path ( ), to/x.path ( ).filename ( ), options | in-recursive-copy) , where in-recursive-copy is a special bit that has no other effect when set in options. (The sole purpose of setting this bit is to prevent recursive copying subdirectories if options is copy_options::none

• Otherwise does nothing.

Parameters

Return value

(none)

Exceptions

Any overload not marked noexcept may throw std::bad_alloc if memory allocation fails.

Notes

The default behavior when copying directories is the non-recursive copy: the files are copied, but not the subdirectories:

// Given
// /dir1 contains /dir1/file1, /dir1/file2, /dir1/dir2
// and /dir1/dir2 contains /dir1/dir2/file3
// After
std::filesystem::copy("/dir1", "/dir3");
// /dir3 is created (with the attributes of /dir1)
// /dir1/file1 is copied to /dir3/file1
// /dir1/file2 is copied to /dir3/file2

While with copy_options::recursive, the subdirectories are also copied, with their content, recursively.

// ...but after
std::filesystem::copy("/dir1", "/dir3", std::filesystem::copy_options::recursive);
// /dir3 is created (with the attributes of /dir1)
// /dir1/file1 is copied to /dir3/file1
// /dir1/file2 is copied to /dir3/file2
// /dir3/dir2 is created (with the attributes of /dir1/dir2)
// /dir1/dir2/file3 is copied to /dir3/dir2/file3

Example

#include <cstdlib>
#include <filesystem>
#include <fstream>
#include <iostream>
namespace fs = std::filesystem;
 
int main()
{
    fs::create_directories("sandbox/dir/subdir");
    std::ofstream("sandbox/file1.txt").put('a');
    fs::copy("sandbox/file1.txt", "sandbox/file2.txt"); // copy file
    fs::copy("sandbox/dir", "sandbox/dir2"); // copy directory (non-recursive)
    const auto copyOptions = fs::copy_options::update_existing
                           | fs::copy_options::recursive
                           | fs::copy_options::directories_only
                           ;
    fs::copy("sandbox", "sandbox_copy", copyOptions); 
    static_cast<void>(std::system("tree"));
    fs::remove_all("sandbox");
    fs::remove_all("sandbox_copy");
}

.
├── sandbox
│   ├── dir
│   │   └── subdir
│   ├── dir2
│   ├── file1.txt
│   └── file2.txt
└── sandbox_copy
    ├── dir
    │   └── subdir
    └── dir2
 
8 directories, 2 files

Defect reports

The following behavior-changing defect reports were applied retroactively to previously published C++ standards.

See also