cp

From NetBSD Wiki

cp -- copy files

The cp(1) utility is used for copying either a single file to a new file or multiple files into a directory.

Contents 1 Single file 2 Recursively copying a directory 3 Multiple files to directory 4 See also 5 View source code (Please report any bugs or suggestions here).

Single file

If there are 2 file name operands, and the last is not a directory, the file referred by the first operand is copied to the second.

% ls
a
% cp a b
% ls
a b

Recursively copying a directory

If you want to copy directories, use the following:

% cp -R /path/to/source /path/to/destination

For more information about the differences between -R and -r please read the manpage of cp(1).

Multiple files to directory

If the last operand is a directory, all the other operands represents files which are copied to that directory.

% ls -l
total 2
-rw-r--r--  1 testuser  users    0 Jul 13 23:23 a
-rw-r--r--  1 testuser  users    0 Jul 13 23:23 b
drwxr-xr-x  2 testuser  users  512 Jul 13 23:23 d
% ls -l d/
% cp a b d
% ls -l d/
total 0
-rw-r--r--  1 testuser  users  0 Jul 13 23:24 a
-rw-r--r--  1 testuser  users  0 Jul 13 23:24 b

See also

• ls
• mkdir
• rm
• mv

View source code (Please report any bugs or suggestions here).

• cp.c