Copy Files from Text List with spaces Solved/Closed

Question

Hello,

I am trying to create a batch file to copy files from a list of locations in a .txt file to a new location.

The code below gives me an error, because the files have spaces in the names. 

@echo off
echo -- > C:\TestingTMP.txt
xcopy /y C:\Testing.m3u C:\TestingTMP.txt
find "H:\Music" C:\TestingTMP.txt >> C:\Testing.txt
for /f %%a in (C:\Testing.txt) do (
  xcopy /y %%a H:\Music\Testing
)

"Testing.txt":
H:\Music\Kutless\Kutless - Sea Of Faces.mp3
H:\Music\Tree 63\The Life And Times Of Absolute - Tree 63 - How Did I Sleep.mp3
etc.

Using a third party program (because all the forums indicate this is what it will take to do text find and replace), I have changed the list generated in "Testing.txt" and put inverted comma's around the files with spaces.

H:\"Music"\"Kutless"\"Kutless - Sea Of Faces".mp3
H:\"Music"\"Tree 63"\"The Life And Times Of Absolute - Tree 63 - How Did I Sleep".mp3
etc.

Now the code 
for /f %%a in (C:\Testing.txt) do (
  xcopy /y %%a H:\Music\Testing
gives me a "Parse Error"! And it still only looks at the title before the first space!
eg. 
c:\>(xcopy /y H:\"Music"\"Kutless"\"Kutless - Sea  H:\Music\Testing
Parse Error

Can anyone please shed some light on this supposed to be simple function and how to solve the problem?

athenazob · Accepted Answer

hi,
in fact you should use your original list and modify the "For /F" statement as written downwards:

    for /F "delims=" %%a in (C:\Testing.txt) do (
      xcopy /Y "%%a" H:\Music\Testing
    )


hope it helps you.

tjstudios · Answer

You might try using PullaFile. Here is the link: www.pullafile.com

the SASS Man · Answer

All you should really have to do is, put quotes around the filename itself in the XCopy command....link so:

xcopy /y "%%a" H:\Music\Testing 

That way, whether the filenames have spaces or not, Windows will expand "%%a" to "Your Filename.ext", and the copy should work perfectly.

Cheers!

the SASS Man · Answer

Oh, one more thing....in order to get past the "Tokenizing" process of the For command, you MUST use the following option:

/F "delimeter="

This tells the system that the ENTIRE LINE from your source file is a single "token" to be passed to the command(s) inside the parenthesis.  For's default behavior is to basically treat every space and tab character it finds as the equivalent as an EOL character.  Unless the user defines some special way of parcing the line.

you can get more information, including info specific to your operating system, by typing "help for" at the command line.

Cheers!

Copy Files from Text List with spaces

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