Copy contents of one directory to another

Question

Using Ruby, how can I copy the contents of one directory to another? For example, given (non-empty) directories A and B:

A/
  bar
  foo
B/
  jam
  jim

I want to copy everything from A into B, resulting in:

A/
  bar
  foo
B/
  bar
  foo
  jam
  jim

I cannot use FileUtils.cp_r because it copies the directory itself:

irb(main):001:0> require 'fileutils'
#=> true
irb(main):002:0> Dir['**/*']
#=> ["A", "A/bar", "A/foo", "B", "B/jam", "B/jim"]
irb(main):003:0> FileUtils.cp_r('A','B')
#=> nil
irb(main):004:0> Dir['**/*']
#=> ["A", "A/bar", "A/foo", "B", "B/A", "B/A/bar", "B/A/foo", "B/jam", "B/jim"]

Is there a better (shorter, more efficient) answer than the following?

Dir['A/*'].each{ |f| FileUtils.cp(f,"B") }

Answer 1

Using FileUtil's cp_r method, simply add /. at end of the source directory parameter.

Example from Ruby doc below. Assumes a current working directory with src & dest directories.

 FileUtils.cp_r 'src/.', 'dest'

http://www.ruby-doc.org/stdlib-1.9.3/libdoc/fileutils/rdoc/FileUtils.html#method-c-cp_r

Answer 2

Try:

FileUtils.cp_r(Dir['A/*'],'B')

Answer 3

When using FileUtils.cp_r, be aware that the first argument can also be a list of files. Try something like:

FileUtils.cp_r(Dir.glob('A/*'), 'B')