cp (Unix)

<h2 id="history">History</h2>
<p>cp was part of <a href="/facts/Version_1_Unix/5oWmUdwo">Version 1 Unix</a>.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:4" href="#fn:4"><sup>4</sup></a> The version of cp bundled in <a href="/facts/GNU/HlAKKBdt">GNU</a> <a href="/facts/Coreutils/Q9cop5U5">coreutils</a> was written by Torbjorn Granlund, David MacKenzie, and Jim Meyering.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:5" href="#fn:5"><sup>5</sup></a>
</p>
<h2 id="operating-modes">Operating modes</h2>
<p>cp has three principal modes of operation. These modes are inferred from the type and count of arguments presented to the program upon invocation.
</p>
<ul><li>When the program has two arguments of path names to files, the program copies the contents of the first file to the second file, creating the second file if necessary.</li>
<li>When the program has one or more arguments of path names of files and following those an argument of a path to a directory, then the program copies each source file to the destination directory, creating any files not already existing.</li>
<li>When the program's arguments are the path names to two directories, cp copies all files in the source directory to the destination directory, creating any files or directories needed. This mode of operation requires an additional option flag, typically  <i>r</i>, to indicate the recursive copying of directories. If the destination directory already exists, the source is copied into the destination, while a new directory is created if the destination does not exist.</li></ul>
<h2 id="usage">Usage</h2>
<p>Copying a file to another file:
</p>
cp [-fHip][--] sourcefile targetfile

<p>Copying file(s) to a directory
</p>
cp [-fHip] [--] sourcefile... targetdirectory

<p>Copying a directory to a directory (-r or -R must be used)
</p>
cp -r|-R [-fHip] [--]  sourcedirectory... targetdirectory

<h2 id="option-flags">Option flags</h2>
<ul><li>-f (force) – specifies removal of the target file if it cannot be opened for write operations. The removal precedes any copying performed by the cp command.</li>
<li>-H (dereference) – makes the cp command follow <a href="/facts/Symbolic_link/laB0S68t">symbolic links</a> (symlinks) so that the destination has the target file rather than a symlink to the target.</li>
<li>-i (interactive) – prompts with the name of a file to be overwritten. This occurs if the <i>TargetDirectory</i> or <i>TargetFile</i> parameter contains a file with the same name as a file specified in the <i>SourceFile</i> or <i>SourceDirectory</i> parameter. If one enters y (or the locale's equivalent of y), the cp command continues. Any other answer prevents the cp command from overwriting the file.</li>
<li>-n (no <a href="/facts/Clobbering/btM43bfM">clobbering</a>) – prevents accidentally overwriting any files</li>
<li>-p (preserve) – the -p<i> flag preserves the following characteristics of each source path in the corresponding target: the time of the </i>last data modification<i> and the </i>time of the last access<i>, the ownership (only if it has permissions to do this), and the file permission-bits.</i></li>
<li>-R or -r (recursive) – copy directories recursively</li></ul>
<h2 id="examples">Examples</h2>
<p>Creating a copy of a file in the current directory:
</p>
cp prog.c prog.bak

<p>This copies prog.c to prog.bak. If the prog.bak file does not already exist, the cp command creates it. If it does exist, the cp command replaces its contents with the contents of the prog.c file.
</p><p>Copy two files in the current directory into another directory:
</p>
cp jones smith /home/nick/clients

<p>This copies the files <i>jones</i> to /home/nick/clients/jones and <i>smith</i> to /home/nick/clients/smith.
</p><p>Copy a file to a new file and preserve the modification date, time, and access control list associated with the source file:
</p>
cp -p smith smith.jr

<p>This copies the smith file to the smith.jr file. Instead of creating the file with the current date and time stamp, the system gives the smith.jr file the same date and time as the smith file. The smith.jr file also inherits the smith file's access control protection.
</p><p>Copy a directory, including all its files and subdirectories, to another directory:
</p>
cp -R /home/nick/clients /home/nick/customers

<p>This copies the directory <i>clients</i>, including all its files, subdirectories, and the files in those subdirectories, to the directory <i>customers/clients</i>. Some Unix systems behave differently in this mode, depending on the termination of directory paths. Using cp -R /home/nick/clients/ /home/nick/customers on a GNU system it behaves as expected; however, on a BSD system, it copies all the <i>contents</i> of the "clients" directory, instead of the directory <i>clients</i> itself. The same happens in both GNU and BSD systems if the path of the source directory ends in . or .. (with or without trailing slash).
</p><p>The copying of a file to an existing file is performed by opening the existing file in update mode, thereby preserving the files inode, which requires write access and results in the target file retaining the permissions it had originally.
</p>
<h2 id="related-unix-commands">Related Unix commands</h2>
<ul><li><a href="/facts/Cpio/ylj9ArS3">cpio</a> – copy an entire directory structure from one place to another</li>
<li><a href="/facts/Tar_(computing)/DCJ37j3d">tar</a> – create an archive of files</li>
<li><a href="/facts/Link_(Unix)/0Y1Cb1Az">link</a> – system call to create a link to a file or directory</li>
<li><a href="/facts/Ln_(Unix)/Ioq2y31h">ln</a> – create a link to a file or directory</li>
<li><a href="/facts/Mv_(Unix)/BScugd1B">mv</a> – move a file or directory</li>
<li><a href="/facts/Rm_(Unix)/FPB4Q2wM">rm</a> – remove a file or directory</li>
<li><a href="/facts/Unlink_(Unix)/YKat5WFM">unlink</a> – system call to remove a file or directory</li>
<li><a href="/facts/Chmod/aGRdWvvk">chmod</a> – change the mode (aka permissions) on a file or directory</li>
<li><a href="/facts/Chown/JPm7Xv6u">chown</a> – change ownership on a file or directory</li>
<li><a href="/facts/Chgrp/L1sDNa1r">chgrp</a> – change group on a file or directory</li>
<li><a href="/facts/UUCP/dQ055F7b">uucp</a> – unix to unix copy</li>
<li><a href="/facts/Secure_copy/letk8brL">scp</a> – secure copy over SSH</li>
<li>progress,<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:6" href="#fn:6"><sup>6</sup></a><a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:7" href="#fn:7"><sup>7</sup></a> Linux tool to show progress for cp, mv, dd.</li></ul>
<h2 id="see-also">See also</h2>

Wikibooks has a book on the topic of: <i>Guide to Unix/Commands/File System Utilities#cp</i>

<ul><li><a href="/facts/GNU_Core_Utilities/Q9cop5U5">GNU Core Utilities</a></li>
<li><a href="/facts/List_of_Unix_commands/EEuIsUx9">List of Unix commands</a></li>
<li><a href="/facts/Rsync/H4UlsQ3U">rsync</a></li></ul>

<h2 id="external-links">External links</h2>
<ul><li><a href="https://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/9799919799/utilities/cp.html">cp</a> – Shell and Utilities Reference, <a href="/facts/Single_Unix_Specification/w1ba5bDt">The Single UNIX Specification</a>, Version 4 from <a href="/facts/The_Open_Group/uRoDdEae">The Open Group</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=cp&sektion=1">cp(1)</a> – <a href="/facts/FreeBSD/RKsFTm7F">FreeBSD</a> General Commands <a href="/facts/Man_page/S2yYjy0J">Manual</a></li>
<li><a href="https://man.netbsd.org/cp.1">cp(1)</a> – <a href="/facts/NetBSD/PTm5HWls">NetBSD</a> General Commands <a href="/facts/Man_page/S2yYjy0J">Manual</a></li>
<li><a href="https://man.openbsd.org/cp.1">cp(1)</a> – <a href="/facts/OpenBSD/xmPS9tek">OpenBSD</a> General Commands <a href="/facts/Man_page/S2yYjy0J">Manual</a></li>
<li><a href="https://docs.oracle.com/cd/E88353_01/html/E37839/cp-1.html">cp(1)</a> – <a href="/facts/Solaris_(operating_system)/KPfT98EJ">Solaris 11.4</a> User Commands Reference <a href="/facts/Man_page/S2yYjy0J">Manual</a></li>
<li><a href="https://linux.die.net/man/1/cp">cp(1)</a> – <a href="/facts/Linux/9FvCKSTq">Linux</a> User Commands <a href="/facts/Man_page/S2yYjy0J">Manual</a></li>
<li><a href="https://9p.io/magic/man2html/1/cp">cp(1)</a> – <a href="/facts/Plan_9_from_Bell_Labs/pQjPlS7w">Plan 9</a> Programmer's Manual, Volume 1</li></ul>

<h2 id="references">References</h2>

<ol>
<li id="fn:1"><p>"Cp(1) - Linux manual page". <a href="https://www.man7.org/linux/man-pages/man1/cp.1.html" target="_blank">https://www.man7.org/linux/man-pages/man1/cp.1.html</a> <a href="#fnref:1" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li>
<li id="fn:2"><p>"GNU Coreutils: cp invocation". GNU. <a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/html_node/cp-invocation.html#cp-invocation" target="_blank">https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/html_node/cp-invocation.html#cp-invocation</a> <a href="#fnref:2" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li>
<li id="fn:3"><p>"EFI Shells and Scripting". Intel. Retrieved 2013-09-25. <a href="http://software.intel.com/en-us/articles/efi-shells-and-scripting/" target="_blank">http://software.intel.com/en-us/articles/efi-shells-and-scripting/</a> <a href="#fnref:3" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li>
<li id="fn:4"><p>McIlroy, M. D. (1987). A Research Unix reader: annotated excerpts from the Programmer's Manual, 1971–1986 (PDF) (Technical report). CSTR. Bell Labs. 139. <a href="/wiki/Doug_McIlroy" target="_blank">/wiki/Doug_McIlroy</a> <a href="#fnref:4" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li>
<li id="fn:5"><p>"Cp(1): Copy files/Directories - Linux man page". <a href="https://linux.die.net/man/1/cp" target="_blank">https://linux.die.net/man/1/cp</a> <a href="#fnref:5" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li>
<li id="fn:6"><p>"Progress(1) - Linux man page". <a href="https://linux.die.net/man/1/progress" target="_blank">https://linux.die.net/man/1/progress</a> <a href="#fnref:6" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li>
<li id="fn:7"><p>"Progress - Coreutils Progress Viewer". GitHub. 14 November 2021. <a href="https://github.com/Xfennec/progress" target="_blank">https://github.com/Xfennec/progress</a> <a href="#fnref:7" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li>
</ol>

cp (Unix) open-in-new

cp (Unix)