I am using dotnet 6-windows.

I want to copy a large amount of files/folders at once.

The problem with an approach like the following is that it is

1. noticeably slower for large amount of files compared to copying using Windows file explorer. I tested it by copying ca. 500 images. The beneath code needed over a minute while the file explorer finished in just a few seconds.
2. does not show a progress bar for all files as a whole like the file explorer

foreach (string filePath in paths)
{
     FileSystem.CopyFile(filePath, destination, UIOption.AllDialogs);
}

The problem is that it hands over one copying task after the other to the operating system instead of one task for all of the files.

Is there any library or built-in method that achieves this (something like FileSystem.CopyMultipleFiles(arrayOfPaths, destination, UIOption.AllDialogs)? Or do I have to use native windows APIs and if so, which?

CodePudding user response：

As far as I understood your question, you want to copy files in parallel. You may use a perfect multithreading abstraction — class System.Threading.Tasks.Parallel. Static method Parallel.ForEach takes a collection, takes an Action<TCollectionElement> and for each item in the collection runs the action, passing it the item. All actions run in parallel.

Here's an example for your case:

using System.Threading.Tasks;

// ...

Parallel.ForEach(paths, p => {
  FileSystem.CopyFile(p, destination, UIOption.AllDialogs);
});

By the way, if each action increases the value of your progress bar according to its progress, and each action thinks it can fill only a fixed area in the bar (in the sum), the effect will be as if the bar represented the progress of work in whole. The fixed area should be 1/x of the whole bar, where x is the number of your files.

CodePudding user response：

Yes, in C# you can use the System.IO namespace to copy multiple files and folders as one task. One way to accomplish this is by using the Directory.GetFiles() method to get a list of files in a directory, and then using the File.Copy() method to copy each file to a different location. Similarly, you can use the Directory.GetDirectories() method to get a list of subdirectories, and then use the Directory.CreateDirectory() method to create those subdirectories in the new location. You can also use the File.Move() method to move the files and folders. You could use a loop to iterate through the files and folders and copy them one by one. Here is an example of copying multiple files and folders in one task :

string sourcePath = @"C:\example\source";
string targetPath = @"C:\example\target";

// Copy all files from source to target
foreach (string file in Directory.GetFiles(sourcePath))
{
    string targetFile = Path.Combine(targetPath, Path.GetFileName(file));
    File.Copy(file, targetFile, true);
}

// Copy all subdirectories from source to target
foreach (string dir in Directory.GetDirectories(sourcePath))
{
    string targetDir = Path.Combine(targetPath, Path.GetFileName(dir));
    Directory.CreateDirectory(targetDir);
    CopyAll(dir, targetDir);
}

This example uses a helper method CopyAll() that recursively copy all the files and folders from source to target. You can also use the Microsoft's System.IO.Compression namespace to Zip and Unzip files and folders.