F5: Copy

 

This command copies files and whole directories from the source directory to another directory.

 

Select the files you want to copy and press F5.

 

To copy a file in the same directory (to a different name), press SHIFT+F5. If you are running Windows 95/98 or NT new shell you can create shortcuts with CTRL+SHIFT+F5.

 

Copy dialog

 

This opens a dialog box where you can type the target path and a file mask. As a default, the path of the target window is presented together with *.* as the file mask. You can use any type of valid file name including wild cards as your target file name. If you don't specify any target path, the files will be copied to the source directory. Press F5 a second time to select just the file name without path. In the field below, you can define that only specific files should be copied. Example: You can copy only files with the extension *.txt (also applies to files in subdirs!).

 

With the button labeled Tree you can choose the target directory from a directory tree. If you want to choose from a different directory, you can specify the drive (including the :) in the dialog box before selecting the Tree button.

 

With the button F2 Queue, the selected files will be added to the last opened background transfer manager. This is useful to copy many big files one after the other, which is more efficient than multiple in parallel in the background.

 

You can also append a file to another file: Make sure that overwrite confirmations aren't turned off, then simply copy the file you want to append to the file to which you want to append it. Total Commander will then show an overwrite confirmation dialog, in which you can click the "Append" button.

 

The checkbox Copy NTFS permissions allows to copy permissions specific to the NTFS file system, like read and write permissions, and the file owner. Now also copies auditing info if we can access it.

 

The button Options allows to set options for unattended copying: By default, Total Commander asks before overwriting files. This button allows to set the default to "Overwrite all", "Skip all", or "Overwrite all older". It also allows to ignore read only, hidden and system attributes when overwriting or moving files.

 

In the field "only files of this type", you can specify what files to copy, also in subdirs.

Examples:

*.txt *.doc will copy only text and doc files

*.* | *.bak *.old will copy everything except for bak and old files

*.* | somedir1\ somedir2\ will not copy files in subdirs named somedir1 and somedir2

 

Packing and unpacking

 

If the source directory shows the contents of an archive, the dialog to unpack files is shown. You can now also unpack files directly from an archive to an FTP server! The files will then first be unpacked to a temporary directory, and then uploaded to the remote server. The reverse (FTP to archive) isn't supported. The danger is too high that after a long download, the pack operation fails, and the downloaded files are lost.

 

Alternatively, if the target directory shows the contents of an archive (and the source directory shows a normal directory), the dialog to pack files is shown.

 

If you want to create a new archive and pack the selected files into it, simply press ALT+F5. This will open a dialog box to pack files. With ALT+SHIFT+F5 the files will be deleted after packing. New: You can now also pack files directly from one archive to another!

 

If you want to unpack the archive under the cursor (or the selected archives), press ALT+F9. After giving the target directory (and if desired a file mask), all files from the archive will be unpacked.

 

Copy progress dialog box

 

In the 32-bit version, the pack/unpack (ZIP and external packers) and copy operations can be moved to the background by pressing the 'Background' button during the copy operation. This allows to do other things in Total Commander during the operation. You need to press F2 or CTRL+R to refresh the directory after a background operation completes. Otherwise modified files will not be shown.

 

Overwrite dialog box

 

This dialog box is shown when a file already exists in the target directory. You can choose whether you want to overwrite or skip the file, to overwrite only older files, or to overwrite or skip all already existing files.

 

The button More Options >> opens a submenu, which offers more commands: Compare by content, Rename target, and the automatic rename options: In case of a name collision, either the name of the copied file, or the name of the target file is renamed automatically to keep both the old and new file. Furthermore, you can overwrite all files which are older or of the same age, or copy all smaller or all larger files.

 

In the normal copy/move function, the overwrite dialog can now optionally display thumbnails for source and target files, and custom fields from content plugins. This is especially useful when copying pictures. The thumbnails/icons support the normal right click context menu.

 

The overwrite dialog supports several hotkeys:

- Alt+Underlined letter for the buttons

- F3 to view the upper (target) file

- Shift+F3 to view the lower (source) file

- Alt+F3/Alt+Shift+F3 to view the file without plugins

- Ctrl+F3 to compare the two files by content

- Ctrl+Shift+F3 to use the internal compare tool if an external tool was defined via wincmd.ini

 

On Windows XP/2000/NT and Windows Vista, you will also be asked whether you want to copy a file "As Administrator". This will start a small program, tcmadmin.exe, which then performs the desired operation with the rights of a different user (or extended rights on Vista when already logged on as an administrator). The program terminates itself after a user-defined timeout defined by AdminTimeout in wincmd.ini. During this period, you will not be asked again for the administrator password. Tcmadmin will also not terminate while it is active, e.g. when you copy files as administrator in a background thread.