CopyFile

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Syntax

CopyFile (szSrcFile, szTargetFile);

Description

The CopyFile function creates a copy of the file specified by szSrcFile. The new file is given the name specified by szTargetFile.

Parameters

szSrcFile

Specifies the name of the file to copy. If the filename is qualified, that is, if it includes a path, CopyFile will copy the file from the specified location. If szSrcFile contains an unqualified filename, that is, without path information, CopyFile will copy from the directory identified by the system variable SRCDIR. To copy groups of files, use wild card characters in this parameter.

szTargetFile

Specifies the name to give to the copy of the file identified by szSrcFile. If the filename is qualified, that is, if it includes a path, CopyFile will copy the file to the location specified by the path. If szSrcFile contains an unqualified filename, that is, without path information, the copy will be created in the directory specified by the system variable TARGETDIR. If the target directory does not exist, it will be created.

When a wildcard character is included in the filename specified by szSrcFile, the filename part of szTargetFile is not ignored as in previous versions of InstallShield Professional; instead, all of szTargetFile is treated as the target path to which each source file is copied to with its existing name. For example, CopyFile( "C:\\*.*", "D:\\File.txt" ) copies files to a folder named File.txt on the D drive. If szTargetFile specifies an unqualified filename, the files are copied to the directory specified by TARGETDIR. For that reason, CopyFile cannot be used to copy and rename a group of files. The source and target directories must be different when szSrcFile contains one or more wildcard characters.

Return values

0

Indicates function successfully copied the file(s) from source to target directory.

< 0

Indicates that the function was unable to copy the requested file.

You can obtain the error message text associated with a large negative return value—for example, -2147024891 (0x80070005)—by calling FormatMessage.

Comments

• If you use unqualified filenames and set values for SRCDIR and TARGETDIR when using CopyFile, save the current values using VarSave before calling CopyFile and then restore them using VarRestore.
   
  
• If the target directory does not exist, CopyFile creates it.
   
  
• You cannot rename groups of files by using wildcards with CopyFile. You can, however, a single file using CopyFile.
   
  
• To include subdirectories, call the XCopyFile function.
   
  
• For file transfer, a preferable alternatives to CopyFile may be XCopyFile. XCopyFile can perform version checking, mark locked .dll and .exe files for update after system reboot, and increment registry reference counters for shared .dll and .exe files.
   
  
• Since Windows 95 and later do not allow an empty file to be copied and Windows NT does not allow creation of empty files, CopyFile will not work under these platforms when used to copy empty files (Size = 0 KB).
   
  
• After modifying .ini files with WriteProfString or WriteProfInt, you must flush the cache buffer under Windows 95 or later before using CopyFile. All .ini files are cached under Windows 95 and later; this behavior can cause a delay in writing changes to the specified files. This in turn can interfere with subsequent fileoperations. To avoid this problem, simply call WriteProfString with null parameters to force Windows 95 or later to write the data to the .ini file immediately, as shown below:

      WriteProfString ("C:\\Test.ini", "Windows", "KeyboardDelay", "100");
  
      //null string ("") for all four parameters
      WriteProfString ("", "", "", ""); 
  
      //CopyFile should now have access to updated file.
      CopyFile ("C:\\Test.ini", "C:\\Temp\\Test.ini");