SharePoint Solution Packages "No More Xcopy"

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I talk to many developers who are still using "xcopy" to deploy some of their SharePoint files to the 12 Hive (especially trust files and custom stsadm commands). 

It is well known that the manifest.xml file within a WSP can be configured to deploy assemblies to the GAC, update a web.config, and deploy files to the TEMPLATES directory.  It is also possible to deploy files to the root of the 12 Hive and other sub directories below it (most importantly the CONFIG directory).

This can be accomplished the same way the <TemplateFiles> node is used in the manifest.xml, except in this instance, you will use the <RootFiles> node.

Example:

.....
</Assemblies>
<RootFiles>
   <RootFile  Location="CONFIG\stsadmcommands.mycustomcommand.xml"/>
</RootFiles>
.....