Does Files.copy(Path,Path) create directories?

Question

I have a bunch of text files(say ss1.txt,ss2.txt,ss3.txt etc.) under a directory with my Java program (C:/Users/java/dir1)?
I want to move my txt files to a new directory that hasn't been created yet. I have a String address for all of my files and I think I can turn them into Paths using

Path path = Paths.get(textPath);

Would creating a String (C:/Users/java/dir2), turning that into a path using the above method and then using

Files.copy(C:/Users/java/dir1/ss1.txt,C:/Users/java/dir2)

result in ss1.text being copied to a new directory?

I just keep getting IO exceptions – knowads Apr 13 '15 at 04:54 — knowads, Apr 13 '15 at 04:54
Why not read their message? – JB Nizet Apr 13 '15 at 05:54 — JB Nizet, Apr 13 '15 at 05:54

score 26 · Answer 1 · answered Apr 30 '19 at 11:18

This is very easy with Files.createDirectories()

Path source = Path.of("c:/dir/dir-x/file.ext");
Path target = Path.of("c:/target-dir/dir-y/target-file.ext");
Files.createDirectories(target.getParent());
Files.copy(path, target, StandardCopyOption.REPLACE_EXISTING);

And do not worry if the directories already exist, in that case it will do nothing and keep going...

score 9 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 12:24

Method Files.copy(C:/Users/java/dir1/ss1.txt,C:/Users/java/dir2) will not create directory, it will create file dir2 in directory java that will contain ss1.txt data.

You could try it with this code:

File sourceFile = new File( "C:/Users/java/dir1/ss1.txt" );
Path sourcePath = sourceFile.toPath();

File destFile = new File( "C:/Users/java/dir2" );
Path destPath = destFile.toPath();

Files.copy( sourcePath, destPath );

Remember use java.nio.file.Files and java.nio.file.Path.

If you want to use class form java.nio to copy files from one directory to other you should use Files.walkFileTree(...) method. You can see solution here Java: Using nio Files.copy to Move Directory.

Or you can simply use `FileUtils class from apache http://commons.apache.org/proper/commons-io/ library, available since version 1.2.

File source = new File("C:/Users/java/dir1");
File dest = new File("C:/Users/java/dir2");
try {
    FileUtils.copyDirectory(source, dest);
} catch (IOException e) {
    e.printStackTrace();
}

If I am not wrong, *commons-io* library does not use the *java.nio* (at least, not for all the actions) package, but the *java.io*. I am saying this because you mentioned to use the *java.nio* package, but afterwards you mention the *commons-io* library. I would also recommend the *java.nio* because it has better file handling than *java.io* - I had some problems mostly with reading files that have special characters in their names which *nio* handled without problems. — Victor, Oct 18 '19 at 12:16

Does Files.copy(Path,Path) create directories?

2 Answers2