grunt-contrib-copy-force v0.0.5

Copy files and folders, overwriting read-only files when force option is true

I'm forking this from the main grunt-contrib-copy package to solve an issue I have with TFS source control making registered files read-only by default. It's very irritating, and I'm shocked that I was unable to find anyone else who'd run into this problem and been forced to solve it in a similar manner.

Hopefully, someone else will find this useful.

Getting Started

If you haven't used Grunt before, be sure to check out the Getting Started guide, as it explains how to create a Gruntfile as well as install and use Grunt plugins. Once you're familiar with that process, you may install this plugin with this command:

npm install grunt-contrib-copy-force --save-dev

Once the plugin has been installed, it may be enabled inside your Gruntfile with this line of JavaScript:

grunt.loadNpmTasks('grunt-contrib-copy-force');

This plugin was designed to work with Grunt 0.4.x. If you're still using grunt v0.3.x it's strongly recommended that you upgrade, but in case you can't please use v0.3.2.

Copy task

Run this task with the grunt copy command.

Task targets, files and options may be specified according to the grunt Configuring tasks guide.

Options

force

Type: Boolean

Set this to true to force overwrite of read-only files.

process

Type: Function(content, srcpath)

This option is passed to grunt.file.copy as an advanced way to control the file contents that are copied.

processContent has been renamed to process and the option name will be removed in the future.

noProcess

Type: String

This option is passed to grunt.file.copy as an advanced way to control which file contents are processed.

processContentExclude has been renamed to noProcess and the option name will be removed in the future.

encoding

Type: String
Default: grunt.file.defaultEncoding

The file encoding to copy files with.

mode

Type: Boolean or String
Default: false

Whether to copy or set the destination file and directory permissions. Set to true to copy the existing file and directories permissions. Or set to the mode, i.e.: 0644, that copied files will be set to.

timestamp

Type: Boolean
Default: false

Whether to preserve the timestamp attributes(atime and mtime) when copying files. Set to true to preserve files timestamp. But timestamp will not be preserved when the file contents or name are changed during copying.

Usage Examples

copy: {
  main: {
    files: [
      // includes files within path, overwriting read-only
      {expand: true, src: ['path/*'], dest: 'dest/', filter: 'isFile', force: true},
    
      // includes files within path
      {expand: true, src: ['path/*'], dest: 'dest/', filter: 'isFile'},

      // includes files within path and its sub-directories
      {expand: true, src: ['path/**'], dest: 'dest/'},

      // makes all src relative to cwd
      {expand: true, cwd: 'path/', src: ['**'], dest: 'dest/'},

      // flattens results to a single level
      {expand: true, flatten: true, src: ['path/**'], dest: 'dest/', filter: 'isFile'},
    ],
  },
},

This task supports all the file mapping format Grunt supports. Please read Globbing patterns and Building the files object dynamically for additional details.

Here are some additional examples, given the following file tree:

$ tree -I node_modules
.
├── Gruntfile.js
└── src
    ├── a
    └── subdir
        └── b

2 directories, 3 files

Copy a single file tree:

copy: {
  main: {
    expand: true,
    src: 'src/*',
    dest: 'dest/',
  },
},

$ grunt copy
Running "copy:main" (copy) task
Created 1 directories, copied 1 files

Done, without errors.
$ tree -I node_modules
.
├── Gruntfile.js
├── dest
│   └── src
│       ├── a
│       └── subdir
└── src
    ├── a
    └── subdir
        └── b

5 directories, 4 files

Copying without full path:

copy: {
  main: {
    expand: true,
    cwd: 'src',
    src: '**',
    dest: 'dest/',
  },
},

$ grunt copy
Running "copy:main" (copy) task
Created 2 directories, copied 2 files

Done, without errors.
$ tree -I node_modules
.
├── Gruntfile.js
├── dest
│   ├── a
│   └── subdir
│       └── b
└── src
    ├── a
    └── subdir
        └── b

5 directories, 5 files

Flattening the filepath output:

copy: {
  main: {
    expand: true,
    cwd: 'src/',
    src: '**',
    dest: 'dest/',
    flatten: true,
    filter: 'isFile',
  },
},

$ grunt copy
Running "copy:main" (copy) task
Copied 2 files

Done, without errors.
$ tree -I node_modules
.
├── Gruntfile.js
├── dest
│   ├── a
│   └── b
└── src
    ├── a
    └── subdir
        └── b

3 directories, 5 files

Copy and modify a file:

To change the contents of a file as it is copied, set an options.process function as follows:

copy: {
  main: {
    src: 'src/a',
    dest: 'src/a.bak',
    options: {
      process: function (content, srcpath) {
        return content.replace(/[sad ]/g, '_');
      },
    },
  },
},

Here all occurrences of the letters "s", "a" and "d", as well as all spaces, will be changed to underlines in "a.bak". Of course, you are not limited to just using regex replacements.

To process all files in a directory, the process function is used in exactly the same way.

NOTE: If process is not working, be aware it was called processContent in v0.4.1 and earlier.

Troubleshooting

By default, if a file or directory is not found it is quietly ignored. If the file should exist, and non-existence generate an error, then add nonull:true. For instance, this Gruntfile.js entry:

copy: {
  main: {
    nonull: true,
    src: 'not-there',
    dest: 'create-me',
  },
},

gives this output:

$ grunt copy
Running "copy:main" (copy) task
Warning: Unable to read "not-there" file (Error code: ENOENT). Use --force to continue.

Aborted due to warnings.

Release History

• 2016-05-10   v0.0.5   Adjustments to tag and version number
• 2016-05-10   v0.0.4   Further edits of package.json and readme.md
• 2016-05-10   v0.0.3   Initial commits and edits of package.json and readme.md