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My.Computer.FileSystem.CopyFile Method

Visual Studio 2008

Visual Studio 2005

Copies a file to a new location.

Copy

' Usage
My.Computer.FileSystem.CopyFile(sourceFileName ,destinationFileName)
My.Computer.FileSystem.CopyFile(sourceFileName ,destinationFileName ,overwrite)
My.Computer.FileSystem.CopyFile(sourceFileName ,destinationFileName ,showUI)
My.Computer.FileSystem.CopyFile(sourceFileName ,destinationFileName ,showUI ,onUserCancel)
' Declaration
Public Sub CopyFile( _
   ByVal sourceFileName As String, _
   ByVal destinationFileName As String _
)
' -or-
Public Sub CopyFile( _
   ByVal sourceFileName As String, _
   ByVal destinationFileName As String, _
   ByVal overwrite As Boolean _
)
' -or-
Public Sub CopyFile( _
   ByVal sourceFileName As String, _
   ByVal destinationFileName As String, _
   ByVal showUI As UIOption _
)
' -or-
Public Sub CopyFile( _
   ByVal sourceFileName As String, _
   ByVal destinationFileName As String, _
   ByVal showUI As UIOption, _
   ByVal onUserCancel As UICancelOption _
)

Parameters

sourceFileName: String . The file to be copied. Required.
destinationFileName: String . The location to which the file should be copied. Required.
overwrite: Boolean . Whether existing files should be overwritten. Default is False. Required.
showUI: UIOption . Whether to visually track the operation's progress. Default is UIOption.OnlyErrorDialogs. Required.
onUserCancel: UICancelOption . Specifies what should be done if the user clicks Cancel during the operation. Default is ThrowException. Required.

Exceptions

The following conditions may cause an exception to be thrown:

The path is not valid for one of the following reasons: it is a zero-length string; it contains only white space; it contains invalid characters; or it is a device path (starts with \\.\) (ArgumentException).
The system could not retrieve the absolute path (ArgumentException).
destinationFileName contains path information (ArgumentException).
The path is not valid because it is Nothing (ArgumentNullException).
destinationFileName is Nothing or an empty string (ArgumentNullException).
The source file is not valid or does not exist (FileNotFoundException).
The combined path points to an existing directory (IOException).
The destination file exists and overwrite is set to False (IOException).
The user does not have sufficient permissions to access the file (IOException).
A file in the target directory with the same name is in use (IOException).
A file or directory name in the path contains a colon (:) or is in an invalid format (NotSupportedException).
UICancelOption is set to ThrowException, and the user has canceled the operation (OperationCanceledException).
UICancelOption is set to ThrowException, and an unspecified I/O error occurs (OperationCanceledException).
The path exceeds the system-defined maximum length (PathTooLongException).
The user does not have required permission (UnauthorizedAccessException).
The user lacks necessary permissions to view the path (SecurityException).

Remarks

CopyFile does not preserve ACEs (Access Control Entries). The newly created file inherits default ACEs from the directory in which it is created.

Tasks

The following table lists examples of tasks involving the My.Computer.FileSystem.CopyFile method.

To	See
Copy a file to the same directory.	How to: Create a Copy of a File in the Same Directory in Visual Basic
Copy a file to a different directory.	How to: Create a Copy of a File in a Different Directory in Visual Basic

Example

This example copies the file Test.txt to the directory TestFiles2 without overwriting existing files.

Copy

My.Computer.FileSystem.CopyFile _
("C:\UserFiles\TestFiles\test.txt", _
"C:\UserFiles\TestFiles2")

Replace the file paths with the paths you want to use in your code.

This example copies the file Test.txt to the directory TestFiles2 and renames it NewFile.txt.

Copy

My.Computer.FileSystem.CopyFile _
("C:\UserFiles\TestFiles\test.txt", _
"C:\UserFiles\TestFiles2", "NewFile.txt", FileIO.UICancelOption.DoNothing)

Replace the file paths with the paths you want to use in your code.

Requirements

Namespace: Microsoft.VisualBasic.MyServices

Class: FileSystemProxy (provides access to FileSystem)

Assembly: Visual Basic Runtime Library (in Microsoft.VisualBasic.dll)

Availability by Project Type

Project type	Available
Windows Application	Yes
Class Library	Yes
Console Application	Yes
Windows Control Library	Yes
Web Control Library	Yes
Windows Service	Yes
Web Site	Yes

Permissions

The following permissions may be necessary:

Permission	Description
EnvironmentPermission	Controls the ability to access all environment variables. Associated enumeration: Unrestricted.
FileIOPermission	Controls the ability to access files and folders. Associated enumeration: Unrestricted.
RegistryPermission	Controls the ability to access registry variables. Associated enumeration: Unrestricted.
UIPermission	Controls the permissions related to user interfaces and the clipboard. Associated enumeration: SafeSubWindows.

For more information, see Code Access Security and Requesting Permissions.

Tasks

How to: Copy Files with a Specific Pattern to a Directory in Visual Basic

How to: Create a Copy of a File in the Same Directory in Visual Basic

How to: Copy a Directory to Another Directory in Visual Basic

How to: Rename a File in Visual Basic

Reference

My.Computer.FileSystem Object

UICancelOption Enumeration

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FAQ

Correction

Example 2 has been updated for the next release of the .NET Framework 4.0 documentation, where this topic now resides.

History

5/6/2010
DougRothaus

The example 2 is wrong

The example 2:

My.Computer.FileSystem.CopyFile _
("C:\UserFiles\TestFiles\test.txt", _
"C:\UserFiles\TestFiles2", "NewFile.txt", FileIO.UICancelOption.DoNothing)

There is not any overloading function can pass this type parameters. The example code will cause error [System.InvalidCastException] .
It should change to :

My.Computer.FileSystem.CopyFile _
("C:\UserFiles\TestFiles\test.txt", _
"C:\UserFiles\TestFiles2\NewFile.txt", FileIO.UIOption.OnlyErrorDialogs., FileIO.UICancelOption.DoNothing)

History

11/30/2009
Bill Chung

12/5/2009
Thomas Lee