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Passthrough File Copy

Contents

If we want to copy additional files that are not Eleventy templates, we use a feature called Passthrough File Copy to tell Eleventy to copy things to our output folder for us.

Configuration API Method

Use a configuration API method to specify files or directories for Eleventy to copy.

eleventy.config.js
export default function (eleventyConfig) {
	// Output directory: _site

	// Copy `img/` to `_site/img`
	eleventyConfig.addPassthroughCopy("img");

	// Copy `css/fonts/` to `_site/css/fonts`
	// Keeps the same directory structure.
	eleventyConfig.addPassthroughCopy("css/fonts");

	// Copy any .jpg file to `_site`, via Glob pattern
	// Keeps the same directory structure.
	eleventyConfig.addPassthroughCopy("**/*.jpg");
};
module.exports = function (eleventyConfig) {
	// Output directory: _site

	// Copy `img/` to `_site/img`
	eleventyConfig.addPassthroughCopy("img");

	// Copy `css/fonts/` to `_site/css/fonts`
	// Keeps the same directory structure.
	eleventyConfig.addPassthroughCopy("css/fonts");

	// Copy any .jpg file to `_site`, via Glob pattern
	// Keeps the same directory structure.
	eleventyConfig.addPassthroughCopy("**/*.jpg");
};
INFO:
Passthrough File Copy entries are relative to the root of your project and not your Eleventy input directory.

If you do not want to maintain the same directory structure, change the output directory.

How Input Directories are Handled

As stated above, passthrough file copy paths are relative to the project root and not the input directory. Because of this, if the passthrough file copy path is inside of your input directory, the input directory will be stripped from the output path.

For example:

  • input directory is src
  • output directory is _site.

If we copy src/img using passthrough file copy, it will copy to _site/img.

eleventy.config.js
export default function (eleventyConfig) {
	// Input directory: src
	// Output directory: _site

	// The following copies to `_site/img`
	eleventyConfig.addPassthroughCopy("src/img");
};
module.exports = function (eleventyConfig) {
	// Input directory: src
	// Output directory: _site

	// The following copies to `_site/img`
	eleventyConfig.addPassthroughCopy("src/img");
};

Using Globs

In this example, we copy all jpg image files to the output folder, maintaining their directory structure. If you do not want to maintain the same directory structure, change the output directory.

Note that this method is slower than non-glob methods, as it searches the entire directory structure and copies each file in Eleventy individually.

eleventy.config.js
export default function (eleventyConfig) {
	// Find and copy any `jpg` files, maintaining directory structure.
	eleventyConfig.addPassthroughCopy("**/*.jpg");
};
module.exports = function (eleventyConfig) {
	// Find and copy any `jpg` files, maintaining directory structure.
	eleventyConfig.addPassthroughCopy("**/*.jpg");
};

With an output directory of _site:

  • img/avatar.jpg will copy to _site/img/avatar.jpg
  • subdir/img/avatar.jpg will copy to _site/subdir/img/avatar.jpg

Change the Output Directory

Instead of a string, pass in an object of the following structure: { "input": "target" }.

eleventy.config.js
export default function (eleventyConfig) {
	// Input directory: src
	// Output directory: _site

	// Copy `img/` to `_site/subfolder/img`
	eleventyConfig.addPassthroughCopy({ img: "subfolder/img" });

	// Copy `src/img/` to `_site/subfolder/img`
	eleventyConfig.addPassthroughCopy({ "src/img": "subfolder/img" });

	// Copy `random-folder/img/` to `_site/subfolder/img`
	eleventyConfig.addPassthroughCopy({ "random-folder/img": "subfolder/img" });
};
module.exports = function (eleventyConfig) {
	// Input directory: src
	// Output directory: _site

	// Copy `img/` to `_site/subfolder/img`
	eleventyConfig.addPassthroughCopy({ img: "subfolder/img" });

	// Copy `src/img/` to `_site/subfolder/img`
	eleventyConfig.addPassthroughCopy({ "src/img": "subfolder/img" });

	// Copy `random-folder/img/` to `_site/subfolder/img`
	eleventyConfig.addPassthroughCopy({ "random-folder/img": "subfolder/img" });
};

Using Globs and Output Directories

Note that this method is slower than non-glob methods, as it is searching the entire directory structure and copies each file in Eleventy individually.

eleventy.config.js
export default function (eleventyConfig) {
	// Output directory: _site

	// Find and copy any `jpg` files in any folder to _site/img
	// Does not keep the same directory structure.
	eleventyConfig.addPassthroughCopy({ "**/*.jpg": "img" });
};
module.exports = function (eleventyConfig) {
	// Output directory: _site

	// Find and copy any `jpg` files in any folder to _site/img
	// Does not keep the same directory structure.
	eleventyConfig.addPassthroughCopy({ "**/*.jpg": "img" });
};

With an output directory of _site:

  • img/avatar.jpg would copy to _site/img/avatar.jpg
  • subdir/img/avatar.jpg would copy to _site/img/avatar.jpg

Passthrough by File Extension

Eleventy, by default, searches for any file in the input directory with a file extension listed in your templateFormats configuration. That means if you’ve listed njk in your templateFormats, we’ll look for any Nunjucks templates (files with the .njk file extension).

If a file format is not recognized by Eleventy as a template file extension, Eleventy will ignore the file. You can modify this behavior by adding supported template formats:

eleventy.config.js
export default function (eleventyConfig) {
	eleventyConfig.setTemplateFormats([
		"md",
		"css", // css is not yet a recognized template extension in Eleventy
	]);
};
module.exports = function (eleventyConfig) {
	eleventyConfig.setTemplateFormats([
		"md",
		"css", // css is not yet a recognized template extension in Eleventy
	]);
};

In the above code sample css is not currently a recognized Eleventy template, but Eleventy will search for any *.css files inside of the input directory and copy them to output (keeping directory structure).

You might want to use this for images by adding "jpg", "png", or maybe even "webp".

INFO:
Note that this method is typically slower than the addPassthroughCopy configuration API method above, especially if your project is large and has lots of files.

Emulate Passthrough Copy During --serve Added in v2.0.0

The Eleventy Dev Server includes a great build-performance feature that will emulate passthrough file copy.

Practically speaking, this means that (during --serve only!) files are referenced directly and will not be copied to your output folder. Changes to passthrough file copies will not trigger an Eleventy build but will live reload appropriately in the dev server.

You can enable this behavior in your project using this configuration API method:

eleventy.config.js
export default function (eleventyConfig) {
	// the default is "copy"
	eleventyConfig.setServerPassthroughCopyBehavior("passthrough");
};
module.exports = function (eleventyConfig) {
	// the default is "copy"
	eleventyConfig.setServerPassthroughCopyBehavior("passthrough");
};

This behavior will revert to "copy" in your project automatically if:

  1. If you are running Eleventy without --serve (a standard build or via --watch)
  2. You change from the default development server: Eleventy Dev Server (e.g. swap back to Browsersync)
INFO:
For 2.0 canary users, note that this behavior spent a fair bit of time as the default and required opt-out from 2.0.0-canary.12 through 2.0.0-canary.30. It was changed to opt-in in 2.0.0-canary.31.
Play Video: Emulated Passthrough File Copy (Weekly №15) Emulated Passthrough File Copy (Weekly №15) ▶7m23s

Advanced Options Added in v2.0.0

Additionally, you can pass additional configuration options to the recursive-copy package. This unlocks the use passthrough file copy with symlinks, transforming or renaming copied files. Here are just a few examples:

eleventy.config.js
export default function (eleventyConfig) {
	eleventyConfig.addPassthroughCopy("img", {
		expand: true, // expand symbolic links
	});

	eleventyConfig.addPassthroughCopy({ img: "subfolder/img" }, {
		debug: true, // log debug information
	});
};
module.exports = function (eleventyConfig) {
	eleventyConfig.addPassthroughCopy("img", {
		expand: true, // expand symbolic links
	});

	eleventyConfig.addPassthroughCopy({ img: "subfolder/img" }, {
		debug: true, // log debug information
	});
};

Review the full list of options on the recursive-copy GitHub repository.

Play Video: Passthrough File Copy Advanced Options (Weekly №15) Passthrough File Copy Advanced Options (Weekly №15) ▶5m37s

Other pages in Configuration: