Copy folder recursively in Node.js

Question

This is my approach to solve this problem without any extra modules. Just using the built-in fs and path modules.

Note: This does use the read / write functions of fs, so it does not copy any meta data (time of creation, etc.). As of Node.js 8.5 there is a copyFileSync function available which calls the OS copy functions and therefore also copies meta data. I did not test them yet, but it should work to just replace them. (See https://nodejs.org/api/fs.html#fs_fs_copyfilesync_src_dest_flags)

var fs = require('fs');
var path = require('path');

function copyFileSync( source, target ) {

    var targetFile = target;

    // If target is a directory, a new file with the same name will be created
    if ( fs.existsSync( target ) ) {
        if ( fs.lstatSync( target ).isDirectory() ) {
            targetFile = path.join( target, path.basename( source ) );
        }
    }

    fs.writeFileSync(targetFile, fs.readFileSync(source));
}

function copyFolderRecursiveSync( source, target ) {
    var files = [];

    // Check if folder needs to be created or integrated
    var targetFolder = path.join( target, path.basename( source ) );
    if ( !fs.existsSync( targetFolder ) ) {
        fs.mkdirSync( targetFolder );
    }

    // Copy
    if ( fs.lstatSync( source ).isDirectory() ) {
        files = fs.readdirSync( source );
        files.forEach( function ( file ) {
            var curSource = path.join( source, file );
            if ( fs.lstatSync( curSource ).isDirectory() ) {
                copyFolderRecursiveSync( curSource, targetFolder );
            } else {
                copyFileSync( curSource, targetFolder );
            }
        } );
    }
}

It looks like ncp and wrench both are no longer maintained. Probably the best option is to use fs-extra

The Developer of Wrench directs users to use fs-extra as he has deprecated his library

copySync & moveSync both will copy and move folders even if they have files or subfolders and you can easily move or copy files using it

const fse = require('fs-extra');

const srcDir = `path/to/file`;
const destDir = `path/to/destination/directory`;
                              
// To copy a folder or file  
fse.copySync(srcDir, destDir, function (err) {
  if (err) {                 ^
    console.error(err);      |___{ overwrite: true } // add if you want to replace existing folder or file with same name
  } else {
    console.log("success!");
  }
});

OR

// To Move a folder or file  
fse.moveSync(srcDir, destDir, function (err) {
  if (err) {                 ^
    console.error(err);      |___{ overwrite: true } // add if you want to replace existing folder or file with same name
  } else {
    console.log("success!");
  }
});

There are some modules that support copying folders with their content. The most popular would be wrench.js:

// Deep-copy an existing directory
wrench.copyDirSyncRecursive('directory_to_copy', 'location_where_copy_should_end_up');

An alternative would be node-fs-extra:

fs.copy('/tmp/mydir', '/tmp/mynewdir', function (err) {
  if (err) {
    console.error(err);
  } else {
    console.log("success!");
  }
}); // Copies directory, even if it has subdirectories or files

Here's a function that recursively copies a directory and its contents to another directory:

const fs = require("fs")
const path = require("path")

/**
 * Look ma, it's cp -R.
 * @param {string} src  The path to the thing to copy.
 * @param {string} dest The path to the new copy.
 */
var copyRecursiveSync = function(src, dest) {
  var exists = fs.existsSync(src);
  var stats = exists && fs.statSync(src);
  var isDirectory = exists && stats.isDirectory();
  if (isDirectory) {
    fs.mkdirSync(dest);
    fs.readdirSync(src).forEach(function(childItemName) {
      copyRecursiveSync(path.join(src, childItemName),
                        path.join(dest, childItemName));
    });
  } else {
    fs.copyFileSync(src, dest);
  }
};

For a Linux/Unix OS, you can use the shell syntax

const shell = require('child_process').execSync;

const src = `/path/src`;
const dist = `/path/dist`;

shell(`mkdir -p ${dist}`);
shell(`cp -r ${src}/* ${dist}`);

That's it!

This is how I would do it personally:

function copyFolderSync(from, to) {
    fs.mkdirSync(to);
    fs.readdirSync(from).forEach(element => {
        if (fs.lstatSync(path.join(from, element)).isFile()) {
            fs.copyFileSync(path.join(from, element), path.join(to, element));
        } else {
            copyFolderSync(path.join(from, element), path.join(to, element));
        }
    });
}

It works for folders and files.