CP(1)

NAME
cp - copy files and directories

SYNOPSIS
cp [options] file path
cp [options] file... directory

POSIX options: [-fiprR] [--]

Additional POSIX 1003.1-2003 options: [-HLP]

GNU file-utils 4.0 options (shortest form):
[-abdfilprsuvxPR] [-S SUFFIX] [-V {numbered,existing,simple}] [--backup=CONTROL] [--sparse=WHEN] [--help] [--version] [--]

Additional GNU file-utils 4.1 options (shortest form):
[-HLP] [--copy-contents] [--no-preserve] [--reply=HOW] [--remove-destination] [--strip-trailing-slashes] [--target-directory=DIR]

DESCRIPTION
cp copies files (or, optionally, directories). You can either copy one file to a given destination, or copy arbitrarily many files to a destination directory.

If the last argument names an existing directory, cp copies each source file into that directory (retaining the same name). Otherwise, if only two files are given, it copies the first onto the second. It is an error if the last argument is not a directory and more than two non-option arguments are given.

(Thus, if /a is a directory, then `cp -r /a /b' will copy /a to /b/a and /a/x to /b/a/x in case a directory /b existed already, but it will copy /a to /b and /a/x to /b/x if there was no /b beforehand, while it will fail in case there was an ordinary file /b.)

The modes of the files and directories created will be the same as those of the original files, ANDed by 0777, and modified by the user's umask (unless the -p option was specified). (But during the recursive copy of directories, newly created directories will temporarily get their final mode ORed with S_IRWXU (0700), so as to allow the process to read, write and search the newly created directory.)

Nothing is done when copying a file to itself (except possibly producing an error message). When copying to a different existing file, it is opened using `open(path, O_WRONLY | O_TRUNC)'. When copying to a new file it is created using `open(path, O_WRONLY | O_CREAT, mode)'. If this fails, the file existed, and the -f option was given, cp tries to delete (unlink) the existing file, and if this succeeds proceeds as for a new file.

POSIX OPTIONS
POSIX recognizes four options and a half:

-f  Remove existing destination files if required. (See above.)

-i  Prompt whether to overwrite existing regular destination files. (Write a question on stderr, and read the answer from stdin. Only copy upon an affirmative answer.)

-p  Preserve the original files' owner, group, permissions (including the set-user-ID and set-group-ID bits), time of last modification and time of last access. In case duplication of owner or group fails, the set-user-ID and set-group-ID bits are cleared. (Note that afterwards source and copy may well have different times of last access, since the copy operation is an access to the source file.)

-R  Copy directories recursively, and do the right thing when objects other than ordinary files or directories are encountered. (Thus, the copy of a FIFO or special file is a FIFO or special file.)

-r  Copy directories recursively, and do something unspecified with objects other than ordinary files or directories. (Thus, it is allowed, in fact encouraged, to have the -r option a synonym for -R. However, silly behaviour, like that of the GNU 4.0 version of cp is not forbidden.)

--  Terminate option list.

ADDITIONAL POSIX 2003 OPTIONS
POSIX 1003.1-2003 adds three options that specify how to handle symbolic links. When doing a non-recursive copy, symbolic links are followed. When doing a recursive copy using the -r option, the results are implementation-defined. When doing a recursive copy using the -R option:

-H  Follow the symbolic links given in the parameter list. Do not follow symbolic links encountered during the recursive copy, but just copy them as symbolic link.

-L  Follow all symbolic links, both those that occur in the parameter list and those encountered during the recursive copy.

-P  Do not follow any symbolic links, neither those that occur in the parameter list nor those encountered during the recursive copy. Just copy them as symbolic link.

There is no default: one should specify the desired behaviour.

GNU DETAILS

Generally, files are written just as they are read. For exceptions, see the --sparse option below.

By default, `cp' does not copy directories (see -r below).

cp generally refuses to copy a file onto itself, with the following exception: if --force --backup is specified with source and dest identical, and referring to a regular file, cp will make a backup file, either regular or numbered, as specified in the usual ways. This is useful when you simply want to make a backup of an existing file before changing it.

By default, symbolic links are not followed.

GNU OPTIONS

-a, --archive
    Preserve as much as possible of the structure and attributes of the original files in the copy (but do not preserve directory structure). Equivalent to -dpPR.

-b  See the discussion of backups below.

--copy-contents (since file-utils 4.1)
    Do the silly things file-utils 4.0 did, trying to copy the contents of device files and FIFOs during a recursive copy. Never use this option. With it, `cp' may well hang indefinitely reading a FIFO or /dev/tty, or fill the destination disk copying /dev/zero.

-d  Copy symbolic links as symbolic links rather than copying the files that they point to, and preserve hard links between source files in the copies. With file-utils 4.0 the long option --no-dereference was a synonym for -d, with file-utils 4.1 it is a synonym for -P, while -d is equivalent to --no-dereference --preserve=links.

-f, --force
    Remove existing destination files in case an open for writing fails, and never prompt before doing so. (Thus since file-utils 4.1. With file-utils 4.0 this option was equivalent to the new --remove-destination.)

-H (since file-utils 4.1)
    See POSIX description above.

-i, --interactive
    Prompt whether to overwrite existing regular destination files.

-l, --link
    Make hard links instead of copies of non-directories.

-L, --dereference (since file-utils 4.1)
    See POSIX description above.

--no-preserve=ATTRIBUTES (since file-utils 4.1)
    Do not preserve the specified attributes. See the --preserve option below.

-p, --preserve
    Preserve the original files' owner, group, permissions, and timestamps.

--preserve=ATTRIBUTES (since file-utils 4.1)
    Here ATTRIBUTES can be one of "mode" (permissions), "ownership" (owner and group), "timestamps", "links", "all" (all of the foregoing).

-P, --no-dereference (since file-utils 4.1)
    See POSIX description above. This replaces the file-utils 4.0 meaning of the -P option, that was a synonym for --parents. See also -d above.

--parents (in file-utils 4.0 also -P)
    Form the name of each destination file by appending to the target directory a slash and the specified name of the source file. The last argument given to cp must be the name of an existing directory. For example, the command:
        cp --parents a/b/c existing_dir
    copies the file `a/b/c' to `existing_dir/a/b/c', creating any missing intermediate directories.

-r  In file-utils 4.1: synonym of -R. In file-utils 4.0: Copy directories recursively, copying any non-directories and non-symbolic links (that is, FIFOs and special files) as if they were regular files. This silly behaviour is obtained in file-utils 4.1 if the --copy-contents option is given.

-R, --recursive
    Copy directories recursively, preserving non-directories.

--reply=HOW (since file-utils 4.1)
    Here HOW can be one of "yes", "no", "query", specifying that to all questions the answer is yes, or is no, or must be obtained by querying the user, respectively.

--remove-destination (since file-utils 4.1)
    Remove each existing destination file before copying. With file-utils 4.0 this option was implied by -f.

--sparse=WHEN
    A `sparse file' contains `holes' — sequences of null bytes ('\0') that do not occupy any physical disk blocks; read(2) reads these as null bytes ('\0'). This can both save considerable disk space and increase speed, since many binary files contain lots of consecutive null bytes. By default, cp detects holes in input source files via a crude heuristic and makes the corresponding output file sparse as well.

    The WHEN value can be one of the following:

    auto
        The default behavior: the output file is sparse if the input file is sparse.

    always
        Always make the output file sparse. This is useful when the input file resides on a filesystem that does not support sparse files, but the output file is on a filesystem that does.

    never
        Never make the output file sparse. If you find an application for this option, let us know.

--strip-trailing-slashes (since file-utils 4.1)
    Remove any trailing slashes from each source argument. (This can change the interpretation in case of a symbolic link to a directory.)

-s, --symbolic-link
    Make symbolic links instead of copies of non-directories. All source filenames must be absolute (starting with `/') unless the destination files are in the current directory. This option merely results in an error message on systems that do not support symbolic links.

-S  Backup suffix, see below.

--target-directory=DIR (since file-utils 4.1)
    Specify the destination directory. Meant for use with xargs(1), as in "ls | xargs cp --target-directory=../d".

-u, --update
    Do not copy a nondirectory that has an existing destination with the same or newer modification time.

-v, --verbose
    Print the name of each file before copying it.

-x, --one-file-system
    Skip subdirectories that are on different filesystems from the one that the copy started on.

GNU BACKUP OPTIONS
The GNU versions of programs like cp, mv, ln, install and patch will make a backup of files about to be overwritten, changed or destroyed if that is desired. That backup files are desired is indicated by the -b option. How they should be named is specified by the -V option. In case the name of the backup file is given by the name of the file extended by a suffix, this suffix is specified by the -S option.

-b, --backup
    Make backups of files that are about to be overwritten or removed.

--backup=CONTROL
    (Since fileutils-4.1.)

-S SUFFIX, --suffix=SUFFIX
    Append SUFFIX to each backup file made. If this option is not specified, the value of the SIMPLE_BACKUP_SUFFIX environment variable is used. And if SIMPLE_BACKUP_SUFFIX is not set, the default is `~'.

-V METHOD, --version-control=METHOD
    Specify how backup files are named. The METHOD argument can be `numbered' (or `t'), `existing' (or `nil'), or `never' (or `simple'). If this option is not specified, the value of the VERSION_CONTROL environment variable is used. And if VERSION_CONTROL is not set, the default backup type is `existing'.

    This option corresponds to the Emacs variable `version-control'. The valid METHODs are (unique abbreviations are accepted):

    t, numbered
        Always make numbered backups.

    nil, existing
        Make numbered backups of files that already have them, simple backups of the others.

    never, simple
        Always make simple backups.

GNU STANDARD OPTIONS

--help
    Print a usage message on standard output and exit successfully.

--version
    Print version information on standard output, then exit successfully.

--  Terminate option list.

ENVIRONMENT
The variables LANG, LC_ALL, LC_COLLATE, LC_CTYPE and LC_MESSAGES have the usual meaning. For the GNU version, the variables SIMPLE_BACKUP_SUFFIX and VERSION_CONTROL control backup file naming, as described above.

CONFORMING TO
POSIX 1003.2

NOTES
This page describes cp as found in the fileutils-4.1 package; other versions may differ slightly.