Introduction:
Since we receive a large number of inquiries about XXCOPY's relative
strength and weakness against ROBOCOPY, the administrator's tool
bundled with Microsoft's Windows NT/2000/XP Reseource Kit, this article
was created to contrast the two utilities.
Apparently, ROBOCOPY (which stands for Robust Copy) and XXCOPY both
come from Microsoft's XCOPY utility as the basis for the overall
approach which of course comes from COMMAND.COM's built-in COPY
command. As its name implies, XXCOPY adheres to XCOPY's general
behavior very closely. This makes XCOPY user's initial experience
with XXCOPY quite painless. In general, XXCOPY is much closer to
XCOPY than ROBOCOPY is to XCOPY. Howerver, as the following chart
shows, the two utilities have remarkable similarities. Except for
minor implementation differences, the designers of ROBOCOPY seem
to have the same general mindset as XXCOPY's designer to the file
management problems.
Common features:
Let us start with a list of common features (with sometimes different
switch letter) which are nearly equivalent in the two programs.
Robocopy XXCOPY Comments
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
srcdir srcspec XXCOPY Allows wildcards anywhere any number
dstdir dstdir Destination specifier
file ---- Part of srcspec to be XCOPY compatible
file... /IN<file> /IN allows additional filename patterns
/S /S Copy subdirectories
/E /E copy subdirectories even if its empty
/LEV:<n> /DL<n> Limit the number of directory levels
/MOV /RC Delete from source after copying
/MOVE /RC/E Delete from source after copying
/PURGE /Z Delete dst files/dirs that no longer exist in src
/MIR /CLONE Mirror a directory tree
/A+:<mask> ---- Add the given Attributes to copied files.
/A-:<mask> ---- Remove the given Attributes from copied files.
---- /KS/KD/KN Keep the src attributes/dst attrib/sets new
---- /AC Clear src archive bit
/CREATE /CLONE/TR0 Create directory tree + 0-length files only.
/FAT /N Create destination files using 8.3 names.
/A /A Copy only files with the Archive attribute set
/M /M Like /A, but remove A-bit from source files.
/IA:<mask> /AT<mask> Include only files with some of the Attrib set.
/XA:<mask> /AX<mask> Exclude files with any of the given Attributes set.
/XF /X<file> Exclude Files matching given names/paths/wildcards.
/XD /X<dir\> Exclude Directories matching given names/paths.
/XC /BS Exclude changed files (backup only same files)
/XN /BO Exclude newer files (backup only older files)
/XO /BN Exclude older files (backup only newer files)
/XX /Z Exclude extra files
/XL /U EXclude Lonely files/dirs (update only existing ones).
/IS /BI0 Include Same files (copy even if they may be same).
/MAX:<n> /SZ:-<n> Exclude files bigger than n bytes.
/MIN:<n> /SZ:<n>- Exclude files smaller than n bytes.
/MAXAGE:<n> /DA#<n> Exclude files older than n days/date.
/MINAGE:<n> /DB#<n> Exclude files newer than n days/date.
/LOG:<file> /ON<file> Output status to LOG file (overwrite existing log).
/LOG+:<file> /OA<file> Output status to LOG file (append to existing log).
/L /L List only (no copy, timestamp, or delete action)
/NP /PB0 Enable/Disable progress display
/R:<n> ----- Number of retries on failed copies
/W:<n> ----- Wait time between retries: default is 30 seconds.
---- /CR<n> In XXCOPY the retry period is specified in seconds.
/SEC /SC Copyies Security information.
/SECFIX /SF Fixes up security information without copy.
/X ---- Report all extra files, not just those selected.
/V ---- Produce Verbose output, showing skipped files.
---- /Q<n> Control various quiet (verboseness) levels
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Note: The comments above are mostly for ROBOCOPY user's
convenience. The terminology in the comment column is
that of ROBOCOPY's. For example, ROBOCOPY' manual refers
to the files that is present in the source but not in the
destination as a "Lonely" file. Also, the way ROBOCOPY
classifies files is almost always by comparing the source
against destination. Although many XXCOPY's switches in
the backup group (starts with /B ) are in the category,
XXCOPY does not always take the viewpoint (bias) in the
file-selection process. That is, whereas ROBOCOPY is
apparently designed with the backup and archiving operation
as its primary purpose, XXCOPY's functionality is wider in
scope with more non-backup related file management operations
(e.g., more selection in file-removal, file-gathering, etc.)
Features found only in ROBOCOPY:
ROBOCOPY
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
/Z Copy file in restartable mode for quick retry later
/TIMFIX Fix timestamps on existing destination files.
/REG Save /R:n and /W:n in the Registry as default
/TBD Wait for sharenames To Be Defined (retry error 67).
/ETA Show Estimated Time of Arrival of copied files.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Features found only in XXCOPY:
XXCOPY
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
WildWildSrc Wildcards anywhere any number in the source
/X*\dir*\ Exclusion dir may be in any level and with wildcards
/EX<file> Exclusion specifiers supplied in a text file.
/CF Command file which removes the size limit of command line.
/RS/RD/RX Delete file/directory (not just a copy utility)
/DA#/DB# File age specifier in Days, Hours, Minutes, or Seconds.
/CCY handle a cyclic copy to proceed.
/SP Span backup into multiple volume (for floppy, CD-RW)
/SX Flatten a directory tree
/SG Gather files into a directory
/Lxxx List (/L) with a customized display format
/BZL/BZS/BZX/BZS Backup if size is larger/smaller/different/same
/NX Preserve short filename
/NL Restore long filename after a SFN-only copy
/NS Restore short filename
/NW/ND Select filename-matching algorithm (Win32 vs DOS)
/NP Precise filename matching (no alias-matching)
/FL/FU Use Filetime in LocalTime/UTC-time
/FW/FA/FC Use Filetime in Last-Write, Last-Access, Create
/FF Fuzzy Filetime with adjustable margin in time comparison
/TR<n> Copy first n bytes to the destination file
/ED/ED0 Delete/leave an empty directory when deleting
/CK/CK0 Enable/disable remaining-space check before copy
/IA/IP Terminate if destination is absent/present
/CB/CQ Continue batch (batch enhancer feature)
/NI<n> Be nice to other tasks (add idle to ease CPU demand)
/ER Report exit code in XCOPY-compatible mode
/V2 Verify a file-copy on a byte-by-byte comparison basis.
/SZ!<n>-<m> Exclude range <n>-<m> which ROBOCOPY can't do
/TS+/TS-/TD+/TD- Time comparison with offset (inter-timezone synchronization)
/WS/WE/P/PD/PW/YY Control for user prompts on various occasions
/PC Prompt on create (in addition to prompt on overwrite)
/PB Progress Bar for the entire job
/PB<n> Progress Bar for file with adjustable cutoff size.
/MD Make Directory (mkdir) for log file, etc. within XXCOPY
/oX Output the list of exclusion items after optimization
/xxxx/? Smart help with a focused list of relevant switches
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Intangible differences:
1. ROBOCOPY provides more detailed statistics than XXCOPY.
2. ROBOCOPY provides percentage display on each file (but good for only
a few very large files). XXCOPY has progress bars for the entire
job as well as single file copy with variable cutoff limit (shows
progress only for large files).
3. When you abort ROBOCOPY, it abruptly ends the whole job without
any display of statictics thus far completed.
When you abort XXCOPY, it first waits for the completion of the
file copy in progress and provides statistics.
4. Robocopy runs only under Windows NT/2000/XP, not in Win95/98/ME.
XXCOPY runs under any Microsoft OS (Win 95/98/ME/NT/2000/XP) and
even has a real-mode (DOS) version XXCOPY16.EXE with essentially
the same set of switches (compiled from a common set of source
files).
5. XXCOPY provides voluminous documentation with many examples in
the web site. The XXCOPY technical bulletin articles are
10 times the size (> 450,000 characters) of the ROBOCOPY
documentation (41,000 characters)..
6. XXCOPY's licensed customers receives competent and prompt tech
support.
7. XXCOPY has a discussion group where users can exchange ideas
and ask questions.
Quick Tips for Robocopy users:
Since the roots of both ROBOCOPY and XXCOPY are apparently, the same,
(Microsoft's XCOPY), the two programs have relatively similar feels.
But, even the small difference is sufficient to confuse the first time
XXCOPY users who have mostly forgotten how XCOPY worked. Here's a
summary of the most confusing aspects.
The way the two programs accept the filename ("lastname") patterns is
quite different. The following three command lines are essentially
the same.
robocopy c:\mydir *.doc *.xls *.mp3 d:\dest /s
xxcopy c:\mydir\ /in*.doc /in*.xls /in*.mp3 d:\dest\ /s
xxcopy c:\mydir\*.doc /in*.xls /in*.mp3 d:\dest\ /s
XXCOPY uses the /IN switch to list multiple filename (lastname)
templates. But, most often, experienced users who is familiar
with XCOPY prefer to use a combined "source specifier" when
there is only one filename template.
robocopy c:\mydir *.doc d:\dest /s
xxcopy c:\mydir\*.doc d:\dest /s
The rest of the differences are the name of command switches that
are mostly a difference in mapping of the switch alphabets. The
comparison charts above is a good starting point. To locate a
specific XXCOPY command switch, XXTB #27 is probably the best page.
Summing up...
ROBOCOPY XXCOPY
----------------------------------------------
Common features 39 39
Unique features 5* 38
----------------------------------------------
Total 44 77
* Most of the ROBOCOPY features which are unique to ROBOCOPY
are idiosyncratic, or otherwise, of relatively minor import.
The only unique feature of any substance is ROBOCOPY's /TIMFIX
operation which XXCOPY does not support as of this writing
(September, 2001).
posted on 2007-10-20 16:31
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