Linux in a Nutshell, Fifth Edition

cp | 93

Linux

Commands

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-r If any of the specified files is a directory, compress recursively.

-v Print compression statistics.

-V Print version and compilation information and then exit.

cp

cp [options] file1 file2

cp [options] files directory

Copy file1 to file2, or copy one or more files to the same names

under directory. If the destination is an existing file, the file is over-

written; if the destination is an existing directory, the file is copied

into the directory (the directory is not overwritten).

Options

-a, --archive

Preserve attributes of original files where possible. The same

as -dpr.

-b, --backup

Back up files that would otherwise be overwritten.

-d, --no-dereference

Do not dereference symbolic links; preserve hard-link relation-

ships between source and copy.

-f, --force

Remove existing files in the destination.

-i, --interactive

Prompt before overwriting destination files. On most systems,

this flag is turned off by default except for the root user, who

is normally prompted before overwriting files.

-l, --link

Make hard links, not copies, of nondirectories.

-p, --preserve

Preserve all information, including owner, group, permis-

sions, and timestamps.

-P, --parents

Preserve intermediate directories in source. The last argument

must be the name of an existing directory. For example, the ...