Copying List Permissions in SharePoint 2010

I just wrote a small script to copy permissions from one SharePoint list to the other.

Things to consider

• Custom permission levels are not preserved: For some reason, my method of copying permissions isn’t custom-permission-level friendly. The customized permissions will still be copied, but an auto-generated permission level will be used.
• Only same-web list tested: I only tested copying permissions between two lists in the same web (site). If you tweak the script to work on lists from different sites, make sure to test it first!

The Script

param(
    [uri]$webAddress = 'http://server/site/url',
    $sourceTitle = 'SourceListTitle',
    $destTitle = 'DestinationListTitle',
    # Reset permissions on child objects (items)?
    [bool]$resetChildObjects=$false
)
 
$web = get-spweb $webAddress.ToString()
$srcList = $web.lists[$sourceTitle]
$dstList = $web.lists[$destTitle]
 
if($srcList.Permissions.Inherited){
    $dstList.ResetRoleInheritance()
}else{
    $dstList.BreakRoleInheritance($false,$resetChildObjects)
    $srcList.Permissions | %{
        $dstList.Permissions.Add($_.Member,$_.PermissionMask)
    }
}
$dstList.Update()