You can use the Copy-Item cmdlet in PowerShell to copy files and folders to a new location.
To show the files that are being copied, you can use one of the following methods:
Method 1: Use Copy-Item with -verbose
$source = "c:\users\bobbi\data1\*"
$destination = "c:\users\bobbi\data2"
Copy-Item -path $source -dest $destination -verbose
This particular example uses the -verbose parameter to output information about the files being copied from the data1 folder into the data2 folder.
Method 2: Use Copy-Item with -passthru
$source = "c:\users\bobbi\data1\*"
$destination = "c:\users\bobbi\data2"
Copy-Item -path $source -dest $destination –passthru |
ForEach-Object { Write-Host $_.Name }
This particular example uses the -passthru parameter to output only the filenames being copied from the data1 folder into the data2 folder.
The following examples show how to use each method in practice.
Example 1: Use Copy-Item with -verbose
Suppose that we have folder with the following location:
- c:\users\bobbi\data1
Suppose that this folder contains three text files and that we would like to copy each of these files to a folder with the following location:
- c:\users\bobbi\data2
We can use the Copy-Item cmdlet along with the -verbose parameter to copy all three files and display information about the files being copied:
$source = "c:\users\bobbi\data1\*"
$destination = "c:\users\bobbi\data2"
Copy-Item -path $source -dest $destination -verbose
The following screenshot shows how to use this syntax in practice:
The -verbose parameter displays information about each of the three files being copied, including the complete source path and the complete destination path for each file.
Example 2: Use Copy-Item with -passthru
If you’d like to use the Copy-Item cmdlet to copy files from one folder to another and only show the names of the filenames being copied, you can use the -passthru parameter with the following syntax:
$source = "c:\users\bobbi\data1\*"
$destination = "c:\users\bobbi\data2"
Copy-Item -path $source -dest $destination –passthru |
ForEach-Object { Write-Host $_.Name }
The following screenshot shows how to use this syntax in practice:
Notice that only the names of the three files being copied is shown in the output:
- coaches.txt
- managers.txt
- regions.txt
By using the -passthru parameter we are able to suppress any output from Copy-Item and then by using a ForEach-Object loop we’re able to write only the filename to the output.
Note: You can find the complete documentation for the Copy-Item cmdlet in PowerShell here.
Related Tutorials
The following tutorials explain how to perform other common tasks in PowerShell:
PowerShell: How to Copy and Rename a File
PowerShell: How to Use Copy-Item and Create New Directory
PowerShell: How to Use Copy-Item and Exclude Folders
