Copy files and folders

If you haven't used Grunt before, be sure to check out the Getting Started guide, as it explains how to create a Gruntfile as well as install and use Grunt plugins. Once you're familiar with that process, you may install this plugin with this command:

npm install grunt-contrib-copy --save-dev

Once the plugin has been installed, it may be enabled inside your Gruntfile with this line of JavaScript:

grunt.loadNpmTasks('grunt-contrib-copy');

This plugin was designed to work with Grunt 0.4.x. If you're still using grunt v0.3.x it's strongly recommended that you upgrade, but in case you can't please use v0.3.2.

Run this task with the grunt copy command.

Task targets, files and options may be specified according to the grunt Configuring tasks guide.

Type: Function(content, srcpath)

This option is passed to grunt.file.copy as an advanced way to control the file contents that are copied.

processContent has been renamed to process and the option name will be removed in the future.

Type: String

This option is passed to grunt.file.copy as an advanced way to control which file contents are processed.

processContentExclude has been renamed to noProcess and the option name will be removed in the future.

Type: String
Default: grunt.file.defaultEncoding

The file encoding to copy files with.

Type: Boolean or String
Default: false

Whether to copy or set the destination file and directory permissions. Set to true to copy the existing file and directories permissions. Or set to the mode, i.e.: 0644, that copied files will be set to.

Type: Boolean
Default: false

Whether to preserve the timestamp attributes(atime and mtime) when copying files. Set to true to preserve files timestamp. But timestamp will not be preserved when the file contents or name are changed during copying.

copy: {
  main: {
    files: [
      // includes files within path
      {expand: true, src: ['path/*'], dest: 'dest/', filter: 'isFile'},

      // includes files within path and its sub-directories
      {expand: true, src: ['path/**'], dest: 'dest/'},

      // makes all src relative to cwd
      {expand: true, cwd: 'path/', src: ['**'], dest: 'dest/'},

      // flattens results to a single level
      {expand: true, flatten: true, src: ['path/**'], dest: 'dest/', filter: 'isFile'},
    ],
  },
},

This task supports all the file mapping format Grunt supports. Please read Globbing patterns and Building the files object dynamically for additional details.

Here are some additional examples, given the following file tree:

$ tree -I node_modules
.
├── Gruntfile.js
└── src
    ├── a
    └── subdir
        └── b

2 directories, 3 files

Copy a single file tree:

copy: {
  main: {
    expand: true,
    src: 'src/*',
    dest: 'dest/',
  },
},

$ grunt copy
Running "copy:main" (copy) task
Created 1 directories, copied 1 files

Done, without errors.
$ tree -I node_modules
.
├── Gruntfile.js
├── dest
│   └── src
│       ├── a
│       └── subdir
└── src
    ├── a
    └── subdir
        └── b

5 directories, 4 files

Copying without full path:

copy: {
  main: {
    expand: true,
    cwd: 'src',
    src: '**',
    dest: 'dest/',
  },
},

$ grunt copy
Running "copy:main" (copy) task
Created 2 directories, copied 2 files

Done, without errors.
$ tree -I node_modules
.
├── Gruntfile.js
├── dest
│   ├── a
│   └── subdir
│       └── b
└── src
    ├── a
    └── subdir
        └── b

5 directories, 5 files

Flattening the filepath output:

copy: {
  main: {
    expand: true,
    cwd: 'src/',
    src: '**',
    dest: 'dest/',
    flatten: true,
    filter: 'isFile',
  },
},

$ grunt copy
Running "copy:main" (copy) task
Copied 2 files

Done, without errors.
$ tree -I node_modules
.
├── Gruntfile.js
├── dest
│   ├── a
│   └── b
└── src
    ├── a
    └── subdir
        └── b

3 directories, 5 files

Copy and modify a file:

To change the contents of a file as it is copied, set an options.process function as follows:

copy: {
  main: {
    src: 'src/a',
    dest: 'src/a.bak',
    options: {
      process: function (content, srcpath) {
        return content.replace(/[sad ]/g, '_');
      },
    },
  },
},

Here all occurrences of the letters "s", "a" and "d", as well as all spaces, will be changed to underlines in "a.bak". Of course, you are not limited to just using regex replacements.

To process all files in a directory, the process function is used in exactly the same way.

NOTE: If process is not working, be aware it was called processContent in v0.4.1 and earlier.

By default, if a file or directory is not found it is quietly ignored. If the file should exist, and non-existence generate an error, then add nonull:true. For instance, this Gruntfile.js entry:

copy: {
  main: {
    nonull: true,
    src: 'not-there',
    dest: 'create-me',
  },
},

gives this output:

$ grunt copy
Running "copy:main" (copy) task
Warning: Unable to read "not-there" file (Error code: ENOENT). Use --force to continue.

Aborted due to warnings.

• 2016-03-04   v1.0.0   Bump devDependencies. Add example of using relative path. Point main to task and remove peerDeps.
• 2015-10-19   v0.8.2   Fix expand-less copies with multiple files.
• 2015-08-20   v0.8.1   Update chalk dependency.
• 2015-02-20   v0.8.0   Performance improvements. The mode option now also applies to directories. Fix path issue on Windows.
• 2014-10-15   v0.7.0   Add timestamp option to disable preserving timestamp when copying.
• 2014-09-17   v0.6.0   Update chalk dependency and other devDependencies. Preserve file timestamp when copying.
• 2013-12-23   v0.5.0   If an encoding is specified, overwrite grunt.file.defaultEncoding. Rename processContent/processContentExclude to process/noProcess to match Grunt API. mode option to copy existing or set file permissions.
• 2013-03-26   v0.4.1   Output summary by default ("Copied N files, created M folders"). Individual transaction output available via --verbose.
• 2013-02-15   v0.4.0   First official release for Grunt 0.4.0.
• 2013-01-23   v0.4.0rc7   Updating grunt/gruntplugin dependencies to rc7. Changing in-development grunt/gruntplugin dependency versions from tilde version ranges to specific versions.
• 2013-01-14   v0.4.0rc5   Updating to work with grunt v0.4.0rc5. Conversion to grunt v0.4 conventions. Replace basePath with cwd. Empty directory support.
• 2012-10-18   v0.3.2   Pass copyOptions on single file copy.
• 2012-10-12   v0.3.1   Rename grunt-contrib-lib dep to grunt-lib-contrib.
• 2012-09-24   v0.3.0   General cleanup and consolidation. Global options depreciated.
• 2012-09-18   v0.2.4   No valid source check.
• 2012-09-17   v0.2.3   path.sep fallback for Node.js <= 0.7.9.
• 2012-09-17   v0.2.2   Single file copy support. Test refactoring.
• 2012-09-07   v0.2.0   Refactored from grunt-contrib into individual repo.

Task submitted by Chris Talkington

This file was generated on Thu Apr 07 2016 15:11:09.