How to Copy or Move Information From a Diskette

Once you have inserted a diskette, you can access its files and directories just as you would those of any other file system. The only significant restrictions are ownership and permissions. For instance, if you are not the owner of a file on a diskette, you won't be able to overwrite that file on the diskette. Or, if you copy a file into your file system, you'll be the owner, but that file won't have write permissions (because it never had them on the diskette); you'll have to change the permissions yourself.

1. Make sure the diskette is formatted and mounted.

   $ ls /floppy floppy0 diskette-name

   If the diskette is properly formatted and mounted, its name and the symbolic link will appear under /floppy.

   If nothing appears under the /floppy directory, the diskette is not mounted. See "How to Load a Diskette". The diskette might also need to be formatted. See "How to Format a UFS Diskette" or "How to Format a DOS Diskette".

2. Copy the files or directories.

   To Copy ...	Use ...
   A file	cp
   A directory	cp -r

3. Verify the copy or move operation by using the ls command.

Examples--Copying or Moving Information From a Diskette

The first example below moves a file (readme.doc) from the diskette to the current directory (indicated by the "." symbol). The second example copies a file (readme2.doc) from the diskette to the current directory. The third example copies a directory (morefiles) and everything below it from the diskette to the current directory.

$ mv /floppy/floppy0/readme.doc  .
$ cp /floppy/floppy0/readme2.doc  .
$ cp -r /floppy/floppy0/morefiles  .