Copy selected files and subdirectories on the command line by telling in detail what to include or exclude.

Copy only changed files. Include or exclude hidden and system files with a free tool for Windows, Linux and Macintosh.
sfk copy srcRoot dstRoot [-dir subdir1 subdir2] [-file .ext1 .ext2]
sfk sync srcRoot dstRoot [-dir subdir1 subdir2] [-file .ext1 .ext2]

Directory tree copy, update copy and synchronization.

If destination does not yet exist, whole content of source is copied,
INCLUDING HIDDEN AND SYSTEM FILES. If destination already exists,
only updates are copied.

Symbolic links are NOT kept, but their content is duplicated. If this
is a problem, use a copy command of your operating system instead.

copy   copies files from source to destination if the target file
       doesn't exist yet, or if the source is NEWER than the target.
       copy will NOT copy OLDER files over NEWER files. furthermore,
       files that exist in destination but not in source are not removed,
       so copy will ADD and REPLACE, but not DELETE.

sync   nearly same as copy, however files that exist in destination
       but not in the source are called STALE files, and are DELETED
       if their age is >= 30 days. USE WITH CARE. If you specify wrong
       folders or file masks, this may delete files unintentionally.
       Take a close look at the output of the simulation mode, which
       is active by default.

-mirror       with sync, copy even older files from source over destination.
-wipe         delete stale files now (ignoring file ages).
-nocopy       with sync, do not copy files, run only delete cleanup.
              can be used if you want copy files first with a different
              copy program, and then run an sfk sync-delete.
-diff         list files in destination which have been modified after
              last copy. Whenever you get a short info "n differing files
              in dest", add -dif to get their names listed.
-since        or -sincedir/dif/add/chg copies only files selected by age
              or difference to another directory. "sfk list" for details.
-nohidden     exclude hidden and system files from copy.
-nofollow     do not follow symbolic link directory contents.
-nodirtime    since sfk 1.9.7.2 folder times are copied by default.
              to disable it use this, or set SFK_CONFIG=nodirtime
-stat         in simulation: do not list filenames, only size statistics.
-keepstale=n  change the 30 days limit for stale files until deletion.
-noinfo       do not comment on skipped files.
-rel[names]   only with input chaining: strips source root directory names
              from filenames. if not selected, absolute paths starting
              like C:\ or /tmp will be stripped automatically.
              some chain commands may provide filenames without separate
              directories, in this case -relnames will produce an error.
-ltarg        always list target filenames (instead of source filenames).
-flat[=c]     do not create sub folders in output, but copy all into the
              same single output dir, with long flat names joining path
              parts by '-' or a given character c.
-flat2        like -flat but without path parts. there is no check
              for redundant output names.

files with whole content being copied are listed in default color.
files that will be deleted during sync are listed in warning color.
files with differing time but equal content are listed in time color.

completeness and efficiency:
- under Windows, SFK uses the CopyFileEx API function, which should
  be able to copy most file attributes and contents as good and fast
  as the XCopy command provided with Windows.
- under Linux, no native copy function is available, therefore SFK may
  not be able to copy all attributes, access rights and timestamps
  of the original files. Furthermore, copying can be slower than "cp".
- Directory attributes, access rights and time stamps may not be
  completely reproduced both on Windows and Linux.
- Changes from/to Daylight Saving Time, differing time zones or copies
  between FAT and NTFS may always copy files which were copied already.
  this is a general problem with all copy commands.

using file system views:
   if you want to specify many directory trees and dir/file masks,
   you may create a fileset, containing a list of directories.
   type "sfk help fileset" for details.

NO WARRANTY FOR DATA INTEGRITY. SFK copy is very convenient to use,
but if you need to copy massive amounts of highly important data, it is
recommended to use the original copy command of your operating system.
Always keep backups of important stuff. After large copies, do some spot
checking if important files were really copied without modifications.
Always double-check the reliability of external media like USB sticks,
e.g. by creating md5 lists (see "sfk md5gento").

see also
   sfk move        move files between two folders.
   sfk syncnames   sync file name changes.

web reference
   http://stahlworks.com/sfk-copy

examples
   sfk copy g:\myimage.zip .
      copy file myimage.zip from drive G: into the current folder.
      doing so with sfk will show the progress while copying.
   sfk copy c:\work d:\arc\work -dir . !\tmp\ !\save\ -file !.bak
      copy directory tree c:\work to d:\arc\work, excluding all dirs
      called tmp or save, including all files except .bak files.
   sfk copy d:\proj v:\team\proj -dir foosys\include foosys\source tools
      within directory tree proj, copy subdirectory trees foosys\include,
      foosys\source and tools, including all files therein.
   sfk filter testfiles -+foo +copy \tmp
      copy all files from testfiles containing "foo" to \tmp.
   sfk copy work archive -fileset myflist.txt
      copy the files listed in myflist.txt from work to archive.
      note that "-yes" must be specified directly after "copy".
      see also "sfk help fileset".
   sfk list mydir .txt .doc code.cpp +copy d:\save
      copies all .txt, .doc and code.cpp files from within mydir,
      including all subdirs, to d:\save. ALSO copies mycode.cpp,
      subcode.cpp.1 etc. as "code.cpp" ist just a pattern.
   sfk list -sincedir mydir1 -dir mydir2 -subdir !\save\
    -file !.bak +copy mydir3
      copies all files that were added or changed between mydir1
      and mydir2 to mydir3, excluding files in sub folders "save",
      and excluding .bak files (type whole command in one line).
      type "sfk list" for more on -sincedir, -sinceadd or -sincedif.
   sfk sel website .jpg .png .gif +copy tmp -flat
      copy all images from all subfolders within website into
      a single flat output folder tmp, without any sub folders.
      this allows to get an image overview (gallery) by opening
      tmp within windows explorer.
   sfk sel a.txt b.txt c.txt +copy \tmp
      copy enumerated files to \tmp
   sfk fromclip +copy \tmp
      copy files listed in the clipboard to \tmp