Why would a post-build step (xcopy) occasionally exit with code 2 in a TeamCity build?

Even if you provide the /Y switch with xcopy, you'll still get an error when xcopy doesn't know if the thing you are copying is a file or a directory. This error will appear as "exited with code 2". When you run the same xcopy at a command prompt, you'll see that xcopy is asking for a response of file or directory.

To resolve this issue with an automated build, you can echo in a pre-defined response with a pipe.

To say the thing you are copying is a file, echo in F:

echo F|xcopy /y ...

To say the thing you are copying is a directory, echo in D:

echo D|xcopy /y ...

Sometimes the above can be resolved by simply using a copy command instead of xcopy:

copy /y ...

However, if there are non-existent directories leading up to the final file destination, then an "exited with code 1" will occur.

Remember: use the /C switch and xcopy with caution.

I fixed the error code 2 by adding a \ at the end of my path, without it, xcopy will think that it is a file instead of a folder.

If you are using xcopy in a post build event use the /Y switch in addition to the /C.

/C           Continues copying even if errors occur.
/Y           Suppresses prompting to confirm you want to overwrite an existing file.

My fix for this issue was to go into the target bin folder, and ensure that the proper subfolder exists there. Once that subfolder was manually created, the build process completed successfully.