Copy the newest file from all the subdirectories

Question

I am trying to get all the newest file from subdirectories into one network directory with a command without getting the subdirectory structures. They are the SQL Server log files with extension of *.trn. I have the following but it doesn't work.

Trying to get only the newest *.trn files from ...........Backup and it's subdirectories.

for /R E:\SQLSERVER\PRODINSTANCE1\Backup %%f in (*.trn) do xcopy %%f "\\198.152.71.14\NetBackups$\MSSQL\Logs" /B /O:D /d /Y

Answer 1

You can use the dir command with the /od switch and a for loop:

@echo off &setlocal enabledelayedexpansion
for /d /r "E:\SQLSERVER\PRODINSTANCE1\Backup" %%a in (*) do (
    for /f "delims=" %%i in ('dir /b /a-d /od "%%~a"') do set "newest=%%~fi"
    xcopy "!newest!" "\\198.152.71.14\NetBackups$\MSSQL\Logs" /B /O:D /d /Y
)

For more help enter help dir in the command prompt.

Answer 2

I'm not sure if you're using xcopy correctly. /O doesn't take arguments. It only copies ownership/ACL info. (Is that really what you want for log files?)

Since you didn't describe what "doesn't work" means, my only suggestion is to hedge against file names with spaces in them.

FOR /R "%SRC_DIR%" %%f in (*.trn) do xcopy "%%~f" "%DEST_DIR%" /B /O /D /Y

This worked for me (I tested with .pdf's).