"cp" Command

Learn all about cp command

HOME

cp - copy files and directories

Copy SOURCE to DESTINATION, or multiple SOURCE(s) to DIRECTORY.

root:~# man cp

Example-1

1.1 Copy One File to another Location

root:~# cat temp.txt
Hello World !
How are you?
root:~# cp temp.txt /tmp/
root:~# ls -l temp.txt /tmp/temp.txt
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 27 Jul 23 10:34 /tmp/temp.txt
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 27 Jul 23 10:33 temp.txt
root:~# cat /tmp/temp.txt
Hello World !
How are you?

1.2 Copy Multiple Files at the same time

root:~# cp file1.txt file2.txt file3.txt /tmp/
root:~# ls /tmp/
file1.txt file2.txt file3.txt

1.3 Copy a directory

Copying a directory is a little different and we need to add -r or -R option to do it. -r or -R option means recursive.

root:~# ls directory_1/
file1.txt  file2.txt  file3.txt
root:~# cp -r directory_1 /tmp/
root:~# ls /tmp/directory_1/

Example-2

2.1 Create hard link to file

root:~# cp -l file1.txt temp1.txt
root:~# ls -liv file1.txt temp1.txt
183085 -rw-r--r-- 2 root root 27 Jul 23 10:37 file1.txt
183085 -rw-r--r-- 2 root root 27 Jul 23 10:37 temp1.txt

2.2 Create symbolic link to file

root:~# cp -s file2.txt temp2.txt
root:~# ls -l temp2.txt file2.txt
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 27 Jul 23 10:37 file2.txt
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root  9 Jul 23 11:18 temp2.txt -> file2.txt

Here, 'l' in lrwxrwxrwx denotes its symbolic link.

2.3 Copy without following symbolic links in Source

root:~# ls -l temp2.txt file2.txt
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 27 Jul 23 10:37 file2.txt
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root  9 Jul 23 11:18 temp2.txt -> file2.txt
root:~# cp -P temp2.txt /tmp/
root:~# ls -l /tmp/temp2.txt
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 9 Jul 23 11:21 /tmp/temp2.txt -> file2.txt
root:~# cat /tmp/temp2.txt
cat: /tmp/temp2.txt: No such file or directory

2.4 Copy with following symbolic links in Source

root:~# cp -L file3.txt /tmp/
root:~# ls -l /tmp/file3.txt
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 27 Jul 23 11:32 /tmp/file3.txt
root:~# cat /tmp/file3.txt
Hello World !
How are you?

Example-3

3.1 Copy directory recursively (-r or -R)

root:~# ls -l /tmp/abc
total 16
-rwxrwxrwx 1 root root 6 Aug 10 13:18 1.txt
-rw-r--r-- 2 root root 6 Aug 10 13:18 2.txt
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 6 Aug 10 13:18 3.txt
-rw-r--r-- 2 root root 6 Aug 10 13:18 hard.txt
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 5 Aug 10 13:20 soft.txt -> 3.txt
root:~# cp -R /tmp/abc /tmp/xyz
root:~# ls -l /tmp/abc /tmp/xyz
/tmp/abc:
total 16
-rwxrwxrwx 1 root root 6 Aug 10 13:18 1.txt
-rw-r--r-- 2 root root 6 Aug 10 13:18 2.txt
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 6 Aug 10 13:18 3.txt
-rw-r--r-- 2 root root 6 Aug 10 13:18 hard.txt
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 5 Aug 10 13:20 soft.txt -> 3.txt

/tmp/xyz:
total 16
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 6 Aug 10 13:26 1.txt
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 6 Aug 10 13:26 2.txt
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 6 Aug 10 13:26 3.txt
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 6 Aug 10 13:26 hard.txt
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 5 Aug 10 13:26 soft.txt -> 3.txt

Here, if you notice then permission of files and last modification times are not preserved.
In abc folder 1.txt file is having 'rwxrwxrwx' permission but in xyz folder its 'rwxr-xr-x'
Similarly,in xyz folder time is different than abc folder for files.

3.2 Copy directory recursively with file permission preserved (-a)

root:~# cp -a /tmp/abc /tmp/mno
root:~# ls -l /tmp/abc /tmp/mno
/tmp/abc:
total 16
-rwxrwxrwx 1 root root 6 Aug 10 13:18 1.txt
-rw-r--r-- 2 root root 6 Aug 10 13:18 2.txt
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 6 Aug 10 13:18 3.txt
-rw-r--r-- 2 root root 6 Aug 10 13:18 hard.txt
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 5 Aug 10 13:20 soft.txt -> 3.txt

/tmp/mno:
total 16
-rwxrwxrwx 1 root root 6 Aug 10 13:18 1.txt
-rw-r--r-- 2 root root 6 Aug 10 13:18 2.txt
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 6 Aug 10 13:18 3.txt
-rw-r--r-- 2 root root 6 Aug 10 13:18 hard.txt
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 5 Aug 10 13:20 soft.txt -> 3.txt

Here, file time and permissions are preserved.

Example-4

4.1 Verbose Mode

root:~# mkdir xyz
root:~# cp -v /tmp/abc/*.txt xyz/
'/tmp/abc/1.txt' -> 'xyz/1.txt'
'/tmp/abc/2.txt' -> 'xyz/2.txt'
'/tmp/abc/3.txt' -> 'xyz/3.txt'
'/tmp/abc/hard.txt' -> 'xyz/hard.txt'
'/tmp/abc/soft.txt' -> 'xyz/soft.txt'

4.2 Create Backup File

root:~# mkdir /tmp/xyz_1
root:~# cd /tmp/abc
root:/tmp/abc# cp --backup=simple -v *.txt ../xyz_1/
'1.txt' -> '../xyz_1/1.txt' (backup: '../xyz_1/1.txt~')
'2.txt' -> '../xyz_1/2.txt' (backup: '../xyz_1/2.txt~')
'3.txt' -> '../xyz_1/3.txt' (backup: '../xyz_1/3.txt~')
'hard.txt' -> '../xyz_1/hard.txt' (backup: '../xyz_1/hard.txt~')
'soft.txt' -> '../xyz_1/soft.txt' (backup: '../xyz_1/soft.txt~')
root:~# cd -
root:~# ls -l /tmp/xyz_1/
total 36
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 6 Aug 10 16:40 1.txt
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 6 Aug 10 13:43 1.txt~
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 6 Aug 10 16:40 2.txt
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 6 Aug 10 13:43 2.txt~
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 6 Aug 10 16:40 3.txt
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 6 Aug 10 13:43 3.txt~
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 6 Aug 10 16:40 hard.txt
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 6 Aug 10 13:43 hard.txt~
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 6 Aug 10 16:40 soft.txt
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 5 Aug 10 13:43 soft.txt~ -> 3.txt