We all know the shortcomings of windows explorer file copy. For example if you get some error mid-way while copying many files, the rest of the files are abandoned and then you have to figure out what was copied and what not so as to repair the target folder structure. xplorer² has a robust copy command (Edit > Copy to menu or <F5>) that solves this and many more problems like overwrite control.

Today we'll examine another advanced copy feature in xplorer², selective copy of files. Sometimes you may only want to copy out some of the files in a selection and leave out the rest. When you press <F5> to copy files in xplorer² you can specify a filter; only files whose attributes match the filter will be copied. You can specify any file attribute you can imagine so that you copy:

• files that match some wildcard (by name)
• all files excluding those that match a wildcard
• all files that were modified last month
• all files except files with the system attribute
• only pictures with rating 4 stars or more, etc

The possibilities are endless since you can use all column attributes to define which files get copied and which stay out. Let's take a specific example. I have a large folder structure where I keep the source code of xplorer². Under it there are many temporary files like *.obj (object) files that are intermediate products of compilation. There are also many files belonging to TortoiseSVN source control in folders called .svn. I want to copy the folder hierarchy but without the TSVN and the temporary object files. How do I do that? simply specify a copy filter with these attributes. More details in today's demo video

Copying only the required files will among other things ensure your computer doesn't get unnecessarily heavy :)

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ps. I'll be away for a few weeks, so I won't be doing much blogging in July. Enjoy your summer in the northern hemisphere!