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Cover image for Living in the Shell #11; cp (Copy Files/Directories)
Babak K. Shandiz
Babak K. Shandiz

Posted on • Originally published at babakks.github.io on

Living in the Shell #11; cp (Copy Files/Directories)

#productivity #linux #bash #devops

cp 🏭

Creates copies of files and directories.

⚠️ Default behavior is to overwrite destination files.

Copy single file 

cp ~/.bashrc ~/.bashrc-copy
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Copy multiple files into a new directory -t 

cd ~ && cp .bashrc .zshrc target-dir
cd ~ && cp -t target-dir .bashrc .zshrc
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Both create target-dir directory and copy .bashrc and .zshrc into it.

Copy by wildcard selection -t 

cd ~ && cp -t target-dir *.zip *.txt
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Copies all .zip and .txt files to target-dir directory.

Copy a directory -r 

cp -r ~/.config ~/.config-copy
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Update only newer files -u 

cp -ru ~/.config ~/.config-last-backup
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This just copies files that modified after the last copy.

Create backup for existing destination files -b 

cp -rb ~/.config ~/.config-last-backup
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Set to ask for overwriting -i 

cp -ri ~/.config ~/.config-last-backup
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Set to keep existing files (no overwrite) -n 

cp -rn ~/.config ~/.config-last-backup
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