XCOPY switch to create specified directory if it doesn't exist?

Answer to use "/I" is working but with little trick - in target you must end with character \ to tell xcopy that target is directory and not file!

Example:

xcopy "$(TargetDir)$(TargetName).dll" "$(SolutionDir)_DropFolder" /F /R /Y /I

does not work and return code 2, but this one:

xcopy "$(TargetDir)$(TargetName).dll" "$(SolutionDir)_DropFolder\" /F /R /Y /I

Command line arguments used in my sample:

/F - Displays full source & target file names

/R - This will overwrite read-only files

/Y - Suppresses prompting to overwrite an existing file(s)

/I - Assumes that destination is directory (but must ends with \)

I tried this on the command line using

D:\>xcopy myfile.dat xcopytest\test\

and the target directory was properly created.

If not you can create the target dir using the mkdir command with cmd's command extensions enabled like

cmd /x /c mkdir "$(SolutionDir)Prism4Demo.Shell\$(OutDir)Modules\"

('/x' enables command extensions in case they're not enabled by default on your system, I'm not that familiar with cmd)

use

cmd /? 
mkdir /?
xcopy /?

for further information :)

I hate the PostBuild step, it allows for too much stuff to happen outside of the build tool's purview. I believe that its better to let MSBuild manage the copy process, and do the updating. You can edit the .csproj file like this:

  <Target Name="AfterBuild" Inputs="$(TargetPath)\**">
    <Copy SourceFiles="$(TargetPath)\**" DestinationFiles="$(SolutionDir)Prism4Demo.Shell\$(OutDir)Modules\**" OverwriteReadOnlyFiles="true"></Copy>
  </Target>