xcopy file, rename, suppress "Does xxx specify a file name..." message

There is some sort of undocumented feature in XCOPY. you can use:

xcopy "bin\development\whee.config.example" "c:\mybackup\TestConnectionExternal\bin\Debug\whee.config*"

i tested it just today. :-)

Another option is to use a destination wildcard. Note that this only works if the source and destination filenames will be the same, so while this doesn't solve the OP's specific example, I thought it was worth sharing.

For example:

xcopy /y "bin\development\whee.config.example" "TestConnectionExternal\bin\Debug\*" 

will create a copy of the file "whee.config.example" in the destination directory without prompting for file or directory.

Update: As mentioned by @chapluck:

You can change "* " to "[newFileName].*". It persists file extension but allows to rename. Or more hacky: "[newFileName].[newExt]*" to change extension

Don't use the xcopy, use copy instead, it doesn't have this issue.

xcopy is generally used when performing recursive copies of multiple files/folders, or when you need the verification/prompting features it offers. For single file copies, the copy command works just fine.

I use

echo f | xcopy /f /y srcfile destfile

to get around it.