robocopy validation

[Richard Guse]

Does anyone know how to automatically validate robocopy? Normally, a program
would print to stderr if there was a problem but robocopy seems to always
send everything to stdout. It looks like I'm stuck parsing the file for
keywords (either looking in the FAILED column at the bottom or look in the
output for other failure factors).

Most of the failure messages I see (although rare) are access problems.

But of course if I do this I'd have to be looking out for updates of robocopy
in the future which may change how the data is presented at the bottom of the
output. It would be nice if all FAILED data was sent to stderr.

Thanks for any help.

 

[neo [mvp outlook]]

Found this old post, hopefully it is helpful.


From RoboCopy.doc

Return Code
The return code from Robocopy (version 1.74 and later) is a bit map, defined
as
follows:
Hex Bit Value Decimal Value Meaning If Set
0x10 16 Serious error. Robocopy did not copy any files. This is either a
usage error or an error due to insufficient access privileges on the source
or
destination directories.
0x08 8 Some files or directories could not be copied (copy errors
occurred and the retry limit was exceeded). Check these errors further.
0x04 4 Some Mismatched files or directories were detected. Examine the
output log. Housekeeping is probably necessary.
0x02 2 Some Extra files or directories were detected. Examine the
output log. Some housekeeping may be needed.
0x01 1 One or more files were copied successfully (that is, new files
have arrived).
0x00 0 No errors occurred, and no copying was done. The source and
destination directory trees are completely synchronized.

You can use this information in a batch file to report the most serious
anomalies, as follows:

if errorlevel 16 echo ***FATAL ERROR*** & goto end
if errorlevel 8 echo **FAILED COPIES** & goto end
if errorlevel 4 echo *MISMATCHES* & goto end
if errorlevel 2 echo EXTRA FILES & goto end
if errorlevel 1 echo Copy successful & goto end
if errorlevel 0 echo --no change-- & goto end
:end

Alternatively, full details of the return code could be reported as follows:

if errorlevel 16 echo ***FATAL ERROR*** & goto end
if errorlevel 15 echo FAIL MISM XTRA COPY & goto end
if errorlevel 14 echo FAIL MISM XTRA & goto end
if errorlevel 13 echo FAIL MISM COPY & goto end
if errorlevel 12 echo FAIL MISM & goto end
if errorlevel 11 echo FAIL XTRA COPY & goto end
if errorlevel 10 echo FAIL XTRA & goto end
if errorlevel 9 echo FAIL COPY & goto end
if errorlevel 8 echo FAIL & goto end
if errorlevel 7 echo MISM XTRA COPY & goto end
if errorlevel 6 echo MISM XTRA & goto end
if errorlevel 5 echo MISM COPY & goto end
if errorlevel 4 echo MISM & goto end
if errorlevel 3 echo XTRA COPY & goto end
if errorlevel 2 echo XTRA & goto end
if errorlevel 1 echo COPY & goto end
if errorlevel 0 echo --no change-- & goto end
:end

 

[Richard Guse]

Thanks! That's the hint I needed.

I'm using a perl script so I simply obtain the return code from the
system() call, divide by 256 and use it. This value is the same as
the ERRORLEVEL listed in your message. If the value is greater or
equal to 8, that's my clue that robocopy had a failure.