# Copy Task

## Copy

### Description

Copies a file or FileSet to a new file or directory. By default, files are only copied if the source file is newer than the destination file, or when the destination file does not exist. However, you can explicitly overwrite files with the `overwrite` attribute.

FileSets are used to select a set of files to copy. To use a `<fileset>`, the `todir` attribute must be set.

### Parameters

Attribute | Description | Required
file | The file to copy. | Yes, unless a nested `<fileset>` element is used.
preservelastmodified | Give the copied files the same last modified time as the original source files. (Note: Ignored on Java 1.1) | No; defaults to false.
tofile | The file to copy to. | With the `file` attribute, either `tofile` or `todir` can be used. With nested `<fileset>` elements, if the set of files is greater than 1, or if only the `dir` attribute is specified in the `<fileset>`, or if the `file` attribute is also specified, then only `todir` is allowed.
todir | The directory to copy to.
overwrite | Overwrite existing files even if the destination files are newer. | No; defaults to false.
filtering | Indicates whether token filtering using the global build-file filters should take place during the copy. Note: Nested `<filterset>` elements will always be used, even if this attribute is not specified, or its value is `false` (`no`, or `off`). | No; defaults to false.
flatten | Ignore the directory structure of the source files, and copy all files into the directory specified by the `todir` attribute. Note that you can achieve the same effect by using a flatten mapper. | No; defaults to false.
includeEmptyDirs | Copy any empty directories included in the FileSet(s). | No; defaults to true.
failonerror | Log a warning message, but do not stop the build, when the file to copy does not exist. Only meaningful when copying a single file. | No; defaults to true.

### Parameters specified as nested elements

#### fileset

FileSets are used to select sets of files to copy. To use a fileset, the `todir` attribute must be set.

#### mapper

You can define filename transformations by using a nested mapper element. The default mapper used by `<copy>` is the identity mapper.

#### filterset

FilterSets are used to replace tokens in files that are copied. To use a FilterSet, use the nested `<filterset>` element.

### Examples

Copy a single file

      <copy file="myfile.txt" tofile="mycopy.txt"/>

Copy a single file to a directory

      <copy file="myfile.txt" todir="../some/other/dir"/>

Copy a directory to another directory

      <copy todir="../new/dir">
        <fileset dir="src_dir"/>
      </copy>

Copy a set of files to a directory

      <copy todir="../dest/dir" >
        <fileset dir="src_dir" >
          <exclude name="**/*.java"/>
        </fileset>
      </copy>

      <copy todir="../dest/dir" >
        <fileset dir="src_dir" excludes="**/*.java"/>
      </copy>

Copy a set of files to a directory, appending `.bak` to the file name on the fly

      <copy todir="../backup/dir" >
        <fileset dir="src_dir" />
        <mapper type="glob" from="*" to="*.bak"/>
      </copy>

Copy a set of files to a directory, replacing @TITLE@ with Foo Bar in all files.

      <copy todir="../backup/dir" >
        <fileset dir="src_dir" />
        <filterset>
          <filter token="TITLE" value="Foo Bar" />
        </filterset>
      </copy>

Unix Note: File permissions are not retained when files are copied; they end up with the default UMASK permissions instead. This is caused by the lack of any means to query or set file permissions in the current Java runtimes. If you need a permission-preserving copy function, use <exec executable="cp" ... > instead.

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