The COPY command is used to copy information from file to file.  There are
generally three different uses for the COPY command, and each of these are
described in detail below.

WARNING **   All COPY commands copy OVER the destination file.  If a file
             already exists with the same destination path and filename, its
             contents are destroyed by the COPY operation without warning!

The global filename characters "*" and "?" may be used in both the source
and destination filenames and extensions (see the help file GLOBALS for
full details).

*** Copy With the Same Name ***

 COPY [d:][path]filename[.ext]   or   COPY [d:][path]filename[.ext] [d:][path]

This command can be used to make a copy of a file using the source file name
for the file copied.  The first command format shown above may be used to copy
a file from another drive and/or directory to the current directory.  The
second format may be used to copy from the default disk drive to another disk,
or between two different directories on the same disk.  The destination
filename could have been specified in the last parameter, but will be known
implicitly if not provided.
Examples of copying with the same name:
COPY A:THISFILE  - This copies the file THISFILE from the default directory on
                   drive A: to the current directory.

COPY B:*.* \  - This copies all the files in the current directory on drive B:
                to the root directory of the current disk drive.


*** Copy With the Different Names ***

     COPY [d:][path]filename[.ext] [d:][path]filename[.ext]

This command can be used to make a copy of a file using a different file name
for the file copied.  The source and destination files may be in the same
directory, or be in different directories on different drives.

Examples of copying with different names:
COPY THEFILE THATFILE  - This copies the file THEFILE from the current
                         directory to THATFILE in the current directory.

COPY B:*.DAT *.DTA  - This copies all the files with a .DAT extension from the
                current directory on drive B: to the current directory on the
                current drive with the same filename but a .DTA extension.
You may also copy to or from one of the known devices in the system (see the
help file DEVICES for details on system devices).  When copying to or from a
device you must end the input with a Ctrl-Z key to signify the "end-of-file"
condition (see the help file KEYS for details).  For example:

COPY CON KEYFILE  - Place all input from the keyboard into the file KEYFILE
                    until the Ctrl-Z key is encountered.

COPY MYFILE PRN  - Print the contents of MYFILE on the system printer.


*** Copy and Combine Files ***

 COPY [d:][path]filename[.ext][+[d:][path]filename[.ext]...]
                                                     [d:][path]filename[.ext]

This command is similar to the command described above, except that one or more
files are copied to one destination file, creating a larger file as a result.
This is the only version of the COPY command where the source and destination
files may actually be the same file (with some limitations as described below).

The following page shows some examples of how this command may be used to
concatenate files in a variety of ways.
COPY FILE1+FILE2 FILE1_2   - Copy the contents of FILE1 and FILE2 to FILE1_2.

COPY *.BAS+*.PAS ALLCODE  - Copy all files with file extensions .BAS and .PAS
                            to the file ALLCODE.

COPY *.HDR+*.ASM *.FNL  - Each file with a matching name and extension are
                combined into a file with a .FNL extension.  The files TEST.HDR
                and TEST.ASM would be combined into a file named TEST.FNL.

COPY C:\THEFILE+ B:  - Copy THEFILE to the default directory of drive B:, and
          change the file time stamp to the current time.  The destination must
          be specified, and is specified as the current drive letter only (no
          path).  Global filename characters do not work properly.  This COPY
          option is riddled with bugs and should probably be avoided.

COPY MYFILE+,,  - Give MYFILE a new time and date (commas indicate the end of
      the source file names).  Global filename characters do not work properly.

COPY PRINT.LST + *.LST  - All files with a .LST extension are appended to the
            file PRINT.LST.  The contents of PRINT.LST would be the first in
            the resulting file.  The space before the "+" is necessary,
            otherwise the contents of PRINT.LST are lost in the copy operation.
            One or two error messages are displayed, but they may be ignored.
Files that are combined are usually text (or ASCII) files.  This type of file
is copied until an "end-of-file" marker is found (a non-displayable character
Ctrl-Z).  When copying binary files (.EXE and .COM for example), the file must
be copied until the full file is copied, regardless of how many Ctrl-Z codes
are detected.  To tell COPY about these two different file types, there are
two options available:

/A  - Indicates this is an ASCII file.
/B  - Indicates this is a binary file.

Either option takes effect on the file it is placed after and applies to all
subsequent files on the command line until the opposite option is encountered.
An option placed on a source filename instructs COPY how to interpret the file.
A /A option placed on the destination file causes a Ctrl-Z to be added to the
end of the file, a /B option does not.  The /A option is the default for all
files unless specified otherwise.

Example:

COPY FIRST.DOC+DATA.BIN/B+LAST.DOC/A RESULT
   - The ASCII files FIRST.DOC and LAST.DOC are combined with the binary file
     DATA.BIN.  The /A option must be specified to turn off the effect of
     the /B option on the preceding file.
NOTE **
* All COPY command formats may be followed by a /V option indicating that the
  file information written is to be verified as to its accuracy.  This provides
  the same check as the VERIFY ON command, but is only effective for the
  duration of this COPY command (see the help file VERIFY for details).
the
HELP distribution diskette before doing this.

You must decide which disk is to contain the help function