Cp

cp command is used for copying files and directories. It lacks progress bar indicator, but you can use progress -w or progress -m command to display the percentage of copied data or use rsync command.

Ansible also includes a cp module with limited scalability (>hundreds of files)

Options

-a, --archive

-l, --link hard link files instead of copying

-p same as --preserve=mode,ownership,timestamps

-R, -r, --recursive

--reflink[=WHEN] control clone/CoW copies. --reflink=always

-v verbose, showing files as they are copied.

cp --help
cp: illegal option -- -
usage: cp [-R [-H | -L | -P]] [-fi | -n] [-aclpsvXx] source_file target_file
       cp [-R [-H | -L | -P]] [-fi | -n] [-aclpsvXx] source_file ... target_directory

Examples

cp -a /source/. /dest/
cp -rp /home/origin /home/destination
cp -rp /home/origin/* /home/destination/
cp file.txt file-`date --iso`.txt

• cp using Bash brace expansion:

cp /etc/httpd/httpd.{,.BAK}

cp -R -af

Activities

1. Understand the differences between cp, scp and rsync: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/20244585/how-does-scp-differ-from-rsync
2. Understand --sparse option and usage cases
3. Learn how to not overwrite a file with -n, --no-clobber option or using rsync -a -v --ignore-existing src dst

Related commands

• rsync
• mv
• progress -m
• copy (Windows)
• nfs-cp
• docker cp
• minikube cp
• multipass transfer
• xcopy (Windows)
• ADD in Dockerfile
• aws s3 cp
• gsutil cp
• sftp cp, since Aug 2022

See also

• cp, dd, sftp, scp, rsync, casync, mv, fio, ln, docker cp, kubectl cp, minikube cp, multipass transfer, Copy-Item, Xcopy
• progress : Linux tool to show progress for cp, mv, dd. See also: pv (Pipe Viewer). Example: progress -m
• dd

Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.

Source: https://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/Linux/Basic_commands/cp