Recursive copy files from folders and rename (folder name)

[Compo]

Thanks for the reply foxidrive and the test, (I am unable to try much of what I do due to lack of a Windows OS).

Is there any reason why the addition of an EOF would corrupt a PDF?
Do you know if it would be specific to the pdf reader software used for creation or viewing of the resulting output file.
Would changing the copy command to read COPY /A prevent the reported corruption.

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If Not Exist "%~1%_ext%" Copy /A "%~1\*%_ext%" "%~1%_ext%">Nul

or

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If Not Exist "%~1%_ext%" Copy "%~1\*%_ext%" /A "%~1%_ext%">Nul

or COPY /B

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If Not Exist "%~1%_ext%" Copy "%~1\*%_ext%" "%~1%_ext%" /B>Nul

Thanks for your input.

[penpen]

Any PDF file data ends with "%%EOF" (without the quotes).
Most pdf generators append a newline character, which not needed and ignored because it is located after the data.
The same happens to any other character that is appended at the end of the pdf file.
So appending an EOF marker is not the main problem here.

But if the file contains an EOF marker (0x1A) somewhere within the file, then the copy command finishes at this marker.
The rest of the file will not be copied.

In WinXp home this happens (for example) if you are using wildcards for the source, and a filename for the destination argument.
If the destination is a directory, then the file is completely copied.
But this behaviour may be OS specific.
More info: https://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/windows/xp/all/proddocs/en-us/copy.mspx?mfr=true.

So this happens in detail (using WinXP home):

Would changing the copy command to read COPY /A prevent the reported corruption.

No this copy mode (that is selected automatically by copy) causes the corruption, so the following happens:

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If Not Exist "%~1%_ext%" Copy /A "%~1\*%_ext%" "%~1%_ext%">Nul

This "/A" indicates that all files are text files.
The destination file ends with the first EOF marker.

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If Not Exist "%~1%_ext%" Copy "%~1\*%_ext%" /A "%~1%_ext%">Nul

This "/A" indicates that the source file is a text file.
The destination file ends with the first EOF marker, too.

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If Not Exist "%~1%_ext%" Copy "%~1\*%_ext%" "%~1%_ext%" /B>Nul

This "\B" indicates that copy does not add an end of file character.
As the source file is automatically selected to be a text file, this results in a file that ends one byte earlier than the files above.

So this is what you wanted to to (treat all files as binary files):

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If Not Exist "%~1%_ext%" Copy /B "%~1\*%_ext%" "%~1%_ext%">Nul

penpen

[Compo]

If Not Exist "%~1%_ext%" Copy /B "%~1\*%_ext%" "%~1%_ext%">Nul

I was aware that /b is the default value for copy unless combining files, so is the suggestion that /B is being ignored in this case because the interpreter thinks I'm combining files based on the use of the wildcard and not on the number of files matched, (which as we know is only one).
Now for the bit that's confusing me, possibly because of what foxi' said, am I supposed to be including any EOF character

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If Not Exist "%~1%_ext%" Copy "%~1\*%_ext%" /B "%~1%_ext%">Nul

...or not adding an EOF character

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If Not Exist "%~1%_ext%" Copy "%~1\*%_ext%" "%~1%_ext%" /B>Nul

[foxidrive]

My test was with a tiny file which didn't have embedded EOF characters but penpen's point seems likely and that the PDF would be truncated with an ascii copy.

[penpen]

the interpreter thinks I'm combining files based on the use of the wildcard and not on the number of files matched, (which as we know is only one).

You are right, although this is not the only cause.
The destination is a single file: This combination causes that behaviour.

Now for the bit that's confusing me, possibly because of what foxi' said, am I supposed to be including any EOF character

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If Not Exist "%~1%_ext%" Copy "%~1\*%_ext%" /B "%~1%_ext%">Nul

...or not adding an EOF character

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If Not Exist "%~1%_ext%" Copy "%~1\*%_ext%" "%~1%_ext%" /B>Nul

I'm not sure if i understand what you mean:
The lower code should still truncate the file (in this case the EOF character is truncated, too).
The upper code should be ok for most combinations.
But if the copy command detects that the destination is a device it may lead to an additional EOF character.
This may only happen, if you write to a device,... or at least copy detects it.
(Maybe the file/path contains "nul" or something like that).

In addition if there is more than only one source file, all destination files get corrupted.

penpen

[Samir]

why not use xcopy vs copy to avoid any issues with the eof? I rarely use copy unless I need a specific feature from it.

[Compo]

why not use xcopy vs copy to avoid any issues with the eof? I rarely use copy unless I need a specific feature from it.

I cannot see any reason why not!
grab2.bat

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@Echo Off & SetLocal EnableExtensions DisableDelayedExpansion
Set _ext=.pdf
PushD %~dp0
For /D %%a In (*) Do If Exist "%%a\*%_ext%" Call :Sub "%%a"
Exit/B

:Sub
Set _cnt=0
For %%a In ("%~1\*%_ext%") Do Set/A _cnt+=1
If %_cnt% NEq 1 GoTo :EOF
If Not Exist "%~1%_ext%" Echo(F|XCopy "%~1\*%_ext%" "%~dp0%~1%_ext%">Nul

[BinaryBen]

I was wondering - is it a big change if I want to keep each sub folders name? So if I have a folder in a folder with a pdf - is it a big change to copy the pdf back to the top but concatenate both the folder names?

Thanx

Ben