# AppSpec 'files' section (EC2/On-Premises deployments only)
<a name="reference-appspec-file-structure-files"></a>

Provides information to CodeDeploy about which files from your application revision should be installed on the instance during the deployment's **Install** event. This section is required only if you are copying files from your revision to locations on the instance during deployment. 

This section has the following structure:

```
files:
  - source: source-file-location-1
    destination: destination-file-location-1
file_exists_behavior: DISALLOW|OVERWRITE|RETAIN
```

Multiple `source` and `destination` pairs can be set.

The `source` instruction identifies a file or directory from your revision to copy to the instance:
+ If `source` refers to a file, only the specified files are copied to the instance.
+ If `source` refers to a directory, then all files in the directory are copied to the instance.
+ If `source` is a single slash ("/" for Amazon Linux, RHEL, and Ubuntu Server instances, or "\$1" for Windows Server instances), then all of the files from your revision are copied to the instance.

The paths used in `source` are relative to the `appspec.yml` file, which should be at the root of your revision. For details on the file structure of a revision, see [Plan a revision for CodeDeploy](application-revisions-plan.md).

The `destination` instruction identifies the location on the instance where the files should be copied. This must be a fully qualified path such as `/root/destination/directory` (on Linux, RHEL, and Ubuntu) or `c:\destination\folder` (on Windows).

`source` and `destination` are each specified with a string.

The `file_exists_behavior` instruction is optional, and specifies how CodeDeploy handles files that already exist in a deployment target location but weren't part of the previous successful deployment. This setting can take any of the following values:
+ DISALLOW: The deployment fails. This is also the default behavior if no option is specified. 
+ OVERWRITE: The version of the file from the application revision currently being deployed replaces the version already on the instance. 
+ RETAIN: The version of the file already on the instance is kept and used as part of the new deployment.

When using the `file_exists_behavior` setting, understand that this setting:
+ can only be specified once, and applies to all files and directories listed under `files:`.
+ takes precedence over the `--file-exists-behavior` AWS CLI option and the `fileExistsBehavior` API option (both of which are also optional).

Here's an example `files` section for an Amazon Linux, Ubuntu Server, or RHEL instance.

```
files:
  - source: Config/config.txt
    destination: /webapps/Config
  - source: source
    destination: /webapps/myApp
```

In this example, the following two operations are performed during the **Install** event:

1. Copy the `Config/config.txt` file in your revision to the `/webapps/Config/config.txt` path on the instance.

1. Recursively copy all of the files in your revision's `source` directory to the `/webapps/myApp` directory on the instance.

## 'Files' section examples
<a name="reference-appspec-file-structure-files-examples"></a>

The following examples show how to specify the `files` section. Although these examples describe Windows Server file and directory (folder) structures, they can easily be adapted for Amazon Linux, Ubuntu Server, and RHEL instances.

**Note**  
Only EC2/On-Premises deployments use the `files` section. It does not apply to AWS Lambda deployments.

For the following examples, we assume these files appear in the bundle in the root of `source`:
+ `appspec.yml`
+ `my-file.txt`
+ `my-file-2.txt`
+ `my-file-3.txt`

```
# 1) Copy only my-file.txt to the destination folder c:\temp.
#
files:
  - source: .\my-file.txt
    destination: c:\temp
#
# Result:
#   c:\temp\my-file.txt
#
# ---------------------
#
# 2) Copy only my-file-2.txt and my-file-3.txt to the destination folder c:\temp.
#
files:
  - source: my-file-2.txt
    destination: c:\temp
  - source: my-file-3.txt
    destination: c:\temp
#
# Result:
#   c:\temp\my-file-2.txt
#   c:\temp\my-file-3.txt
#
# ---------------------
#
# 3) Copy my-file.txt, my-file-2.txt, and my-file-3.txt (along with the appspec.yml file) to the destination folder c:\temp.
#
files:
  - source: \
    destination: c:\temp
#
# Result:
#   c:\temp\appspec.yml
#   c:\temp\my-file.txt
#   c:\temp\my-file-2.txt
#   c:\temp\my-file-3.txt
```

For the following examples, we assume the `appspec.yml` appears in the bundle in the root of `source` along with a folder named `my-folder` that contains three files:
+ `appspec.yml`
+ `my-folder\my-file.txt`
+ `my-folder\my-file-2.txt`
+ `my-folder\my-file-3.txt`

```
# 4) Copy the 3 files in my-folder (but do not copy my-folder itself) to the destination folder c:\temp. 
#
files:
  - source: .\my-folder
    destination: c:\temp
#
# Result:
#   c:\temp\my-file.txt
#   c:\temp\my-file-2.txt
#   c:\temp\my-file-3.txt
#
# ---------------------
#
# 5) Copy my-folder and its 3 files to my-folder within the destination folder c:\temp.
#
files:
  - source: .\my-folder
    destination: c:\temp\my-folder
#
# Result:
#   c:\temp\my-folder\my-file.txt
#   c:\temp\my-folder\my-file-2.txt
#   c:\temp\my-folder\my-file-3.txt
#
# ---------------------
#
# 6) Copy the 3 files in my-folder to other-folder within the destination folder c:\temp.
#
files:
  - source: .\my-folder
    destination: c:\temp\other-folder
#
# Result:
#   c:\temp\other-folder\my-file.txt
#   c:\temp\other-folder\my-file-2.txt
#   c:\temp\other-folder\my-file-3.txt	
#
# ---------------------
#
# 7) Copy only my-file-2.txt and my-file-3.txt to my-folder within the destination folder c:\temp.
#
files:
  - source: .\my-folder\my-file-2.txt
    destination: c:\temp\my-folder
  - source: .\my-folder\my-file-3.txt
    destination: c:\temp\my-folder
#
# Result:
#   c:\temp\my-folder\my-file-2.txt
#   c:\temp\my-folder\my-file-3.txt
#
# ---------------------
#
# 8) Copy only my-file-2.txt and my-file-3.txt to other-folder within the destination folder c:\temp.
#
files:
  - source: .\my-folder\my-file-2.txt
    destination: c:\temp\other-folder
  - source: .\my-folder\my-file-3.txt
    destination: c:\temp\other-folder
#
# Result:
#   c:\temp\other-folder\my-file-2.txt
#   c:\temp\other-folder\my-file-3.txt
#
# ---------------------
#
# 9) Copy my-folder and its 3 files (along with the appspec.yml file) to the destination folder c:\temp. If any of the files already exist on the instance, overwrite them.
#
files:
  - source: \
    destination: c:\temp
file_exists_behavior: OVERWRITE
#
# Result:
#   c:\temp\appspec.yml
#   c:\temp\my-folder\my-file.txt
#   c:\temp\my-folder\my-file-2.txt
#   c:\temp\my-folder\my-file-3.txt
```