Windows 7 Robocopy producing verbose logfile, /V not specified

[AlanMintaka]

Hi,
I'm using Robocopy with Windows 7 Home Premium SP1. The logfile it produces shows all the skipped files, even though I'm not using the /V switch (verbose). Here's the start of the latest log, starting with the options line. Sorry about the formatting; I can't figure out how to retain multiple spaces with this editor (quote tags don't work):

Options : *.* /S /E /COPYAT /NP /XO /R:2 /W:5

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
19 C:\
*EXTRA Dir -1 j:\BoC\BoTemp\
*EXTRA Dir -1 j:\BoC\Config.Msi\
*EXTRA Dir -1 j:\BoC\My Music\
*EXTRA File 6480 READ ME.TXT
*EXTRA File 16 SyncToy_185c6137-2079-480c-95e0-dceb231f346e.dat
*EXTRA File 16 SyncToy_79d00922-7327-4411-b663-001f27802e31.dat
1 C:\Bo\
*EXTRA Dir -1 j:\BoC\Bo\BoAstro\
*EXTRA Dir -1 j:\BoC\Bo\BoStars\
1 C:\Bo\Bo\
1 C:\Bo\Bo\Bo\
*EXTRA Dir -1 j:\BoC\Bo\Bo\Bo\Bo\
*EXTRA Dir -1 j:\BoC\Bo\Bo\Bo\Bo2\
*EXTRA Dir -1 j:\BoC\Bo\Bo\Bo\Bo3\
*EXTRA Dir -1 j:\BoC\Bo\Bo\Bo\Bo4\
*EXTRA Dir -1 j:\BoC\Bo\Bo\Bo\BoDoc\
*EXTRA File 16 SyncToy_38d46b89-696b-489d-a24f-279f48a8bacc.dat
*EXTRA File 16 SyncToy_81b0e6d9-a03e-47f2-92c1-a7d8ae6992a2.dat
*EXTRA File 16 SyncToy_cbb99464-34bc-4f54-bbbb-22b83a92e7ea.dat
*EXTRA File 16 SyncToy_da3c4051-00d0-4575-b2d7-cfc6eae87750.dat
2 C:\Bo\Bo\BoDad\
3 C:\Bo\Bo\BoDad\AOLContacts\
2 C:\Bo\Bo\BoDad\Birdhouses\
1 C:\Bo\Bo\BoDad\BoDad's Stuff 20070813\
1 C:\Bo\Bo\BoDad\BoDad's Stuff 20070813\20070813\
2 C:\Bo\Bo\BoDad\BoDad's Stuff 20070813\20070813\BoAceUtilities !!!\
24 C:\Bo\Bo\BoDad\BoDad's Stuff 20070813\20070813\BoAceUtilities !!!\AceUtilities\
3 C:\Bo\Bo\BoDad\BoDad's Stuff 20070813\20070813\BoAceUtilities !!!\AceUtilities\Data\
2 C:\Bo\Bo\BoDad\BoDad's Stuff 20070813\20070813\BoAceUtilities !!!\AceUtilities\Data\I


The folder listing continues like that for about 300,000 lines. Only a small fraction are marked as "newer" or "new", i.e. are actually copied. The other folders shown aren't changed in the destination. The summary line looks like this:

Total Copied Skipped Mismatch FAILED Extras
Dirs : 35024 1 35017 0 6 1929
Files : 359641 161 359310 0 170 8944

Note that only 1 directory and 161 files were copied. Yet the log shows all 359641 files that were skipped. Any idea why it would do this if the /V is not specified?

Thanks for your time,
Big Al Mintaka

 

[Ricardo Bohner]

I think you are getting something wrong here there were not 1 dir and 161 files copied, that is the amount of files that were skipped. Actually 35024 directories and 359641 files were copied...You can let the logfile much shorter by using the /ndl (No Directory Listing) switch.

 

[AlanMintaka]

I think you are getting something wrong here there were not 1 dir and 161 files copied, that is the amount of files that were skipped. Actually 35024 directories and 359641 files were copied...You can let the logfile much shorter by using the /ndl (No Directory Listing) switch.

No, I had it right. I had problems with formatting that table as I mentioned in my post. I'll reformat that table column by column so you can see what's going on:

Total Dirs: 35024
Total Files: 359641

Copied Dirs: 1
Copied Files: 161

Skipped Dirs: 35017
Skipped Files: 359310

Failed Dirs: 0
Failed Files: 0

Extra Dirs: 1929
Extra Files: 8944

All of those skipped files and dirs showed up in the log, even though the /V switch wasn't specified.

I did wind up solving my problem per advice on another thread (the scripting forum).

The solution still doesn't explain why omitting the /V switch didn't work, and it doesn't make sense given the description of what those switches do.

I found it by trial and error using test runs for the various switches. Here's the combo that worked:

/E /R:2 /W:5 /XX /XO /NP /FP /NDL

The last 3 switches are the ones that kept skipped files and dirs out of the logfile. I know the doc doesn't say that for that combination of switches, but the doc also doesn't say that you're going to get a verbose report in the log even if the /V switch isn't specified.

This is what worked!

In the meantime, XXCOPY also came up with an update that makes it compatible with Service Pack 1 for Windows 7. I returned to using XXCOPY, so the issue with Robocopy became moot after all.

Have a good one,
Big Al Mintaka

 

[Ricardo Bohner]

Hi, It looks like skipped directrories are included by default, if you use the /v switch additionally to the directories you also get skipped "files".
You don´t need the /NP = (No Progress) and /FP = (Full Path) switches. /xx Excludes the "Extra files" that is files that exist in Destiny but don´t exist in the source so you log file will be much shorter.
What is xxcopy do you mean xcopy? There is also a graphical version of the robocopy comand line provided by microsoft called richcopy maybe you find it easier to use, but it is not included in Windows by default you have to download it.

 

[AlanMintaka]

Hi Ricardo,

1. Actually I do need the /NP switch. Without it the copy operation is slowed significantly. It's in my first response to your message because I reported all of my Robocopy options, not just the ones that fixed the logging report problem.

2. I also need the /FP switch. Without it, Robocopy will not include the path for the files it copies in the log. It will just report the file names. I have a large number of files, and I need to know which folders contain those files or I'll lose track of what's being copied where - especially if files with the same names inhabit different folders.

Note that I had to include the /NDL switch to keep skipped directories from being reported. Unfortunately this had the side effect of removing the path from the files that had been copied. Adding the /FP switch restored the path on copied files, while the /NDL switch kept the skipped directories from being reported.

Remember, this was all determined by trial and error.

3. No doubt about it, using /XX shortens the logfile considerably. According to an old doc I found on a third party website, it's also supposed to cause Robocopy to delete the extra files on the destination. I've found it practice that it doesn't do that, though I don't care to much about it. Most likely, that third-party doc I found is wrong about that. Here's a link to that document if you'd like to see it. It goes into a lot of detail about what some of the switches do and what the definitions of things like "extra" and "skipped" files are:

Robocopy - SS64 Documentation

4. I'll have to check it out that Robocopy GUI version. I've been concentrating on the command line version because I wanted to automate the operation as much as possible in a batch script. That includes viewing/cleanups of log and console files, repeat operations, multiple source drive and destination selection, etc. If the graphical version does all that, I'll definitely switch. Thanks for the heads-up.

5. XXcopy isn't Xcopy. XXcopy is a very useful freeware program that's easier for me to control than Robocopy. There's a handy breakdown of comparisons between the two programs on the XXcopy website, and a user support forum in Yahoo groups.

It's probably a matter of what works best for each person. You have a good handle on Robocopy and how to use it, so XXcopy probably won't offer you anything you can't already do.

Whatever, here are some links to the relevant info, just in case you'd like to check it out anyway.

Link Removed

Link Removed

Link Removed - Invalid URL

Thanks for the input, especially that tip about the GUI for Robocopy.

Big Al Mintaka

 

[Ricardo Bohner]

Dear Big Al Mintaka
1. You don´t need the /fp switch robocopy puts the full path of every file automatically if the /ndl switch is specified.

2. If you want things to happen faster you can use the /MT (Multi Thread) switch makes the processor dedicate more time to robocopy, the default is 8 and maximum is 128.

3. The /xx switch doesn´t exclude nothing on your HD it just eXcludes the extra files from being considerated at the copy/move operation. If you want to remove the extra files form the destiny you have to specify the /E and /purge or /MIR switch and must not include the /XX because if you include the /XX switch then robocopy ignores eXtra files completely.

4. Thank you for the links for xxcopy I will check it out, I love copy command line tools . There is an even more detailed documentation about robocopy included in the windows 2003 Resource kit tools. Though it references to robocopy version XP 010 (Windows 7 is ver. XP 027) robocopy did not change much of it´s switches and behaviorism.

One thing that I would like to do using robocopy is to copy several files in a folder structure that have a pattern like *mp3* to a single folder but didn't have any success.

something like this:
robocopy c:\users\ricardo c:\backup\mp3 *con* /e /XD *

/xd for exclude directory
See ya bye

 

[Ricardo Bohner]

Ups I ment: robocopy c:\users\ricardo c:\backup\mp3 *mp3* /e /XD *