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| Bash Copy |
Bash command: cp
cp is used to copy files and directories.
The utility copies the contents of the source file to the target file. The utility can also copy the contents of each named source file to the target directory. The names of the files themselves are not changed. If cp detects an attempt to copy a file to itself, the copy will fail.
Usage
cp [options] source target
Commonly used options:
-p(preserve) - used to preserve time of the last data modification, time of last access, ownership, and permissions of the source for the target-R or -r(recursive) - used to recursively copy directories
Examples
Copy a file
cp somefile.txt newfile.txt
Run ls and you will see you have a new file called newfile.txt
Copy a file to a directory
cp -p somefile.txt your/target/directory
cd into the target directory, ls, and you will see a copy of your file. The -p option is added to preserve the files attributes.
Copy multiple files to a directory
cp file1.txt file2.txt fileN.txt your/target/directory
cd into the target directory, ls, and you will see copies of all of the files.
Copy an entire set of files with given extension
cp *.extension directory
cd into the target directory and you will see all files with entered extension into the directory
Copy a directory
cp -R directory/to/copy your/target/directory
cd into the target directory and ls to see your directory. The -R option is added to recursively copy everything in the directory.
More Information
- run
man cpto get a list of all options for this command - Wikipedia