cp(1)

NAME | SYNOPSIS | DESCRIPTION | OPTIONS | OPERANDS | USAGE | EXAMPLES | ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES | EXIT STATUS | ATTRIBUTES | SEE ALSO | NOTES

NAME

cp– copy files

SYNOPSIS

/usr/bin/cp [-fip] source_file target_file
/usr/bin/cp [-fip] source_file… target
/usr/bin/cp -r| -R [-fip] source_dir… target
/usr/xpg4/bin/cp [-fip] source_file target_file
/usr/xpg4/bin/cp [-fip] source_file… target
/usr/xpg4/bin/cp -r| -R [-fip] source_dir… target

DESCRIPTION

In the first synopsis form, neither source_file nor target_file are directory files, nor can they have the same name. The cp utility will copy the contents of source_file to the destination path named by target_file. If target_file exists, cp will overwrite its contents, but the mode (and ACL if applicable), owner, and group associated with it are not changed. The last modification time of target_file and the last access time of source_file are set to the time the copy was made. If target_file does not exist, cp creates a new file named target_file that has the same mode as source_file except that the sticky bit is not set unless the user is superuser; the owner and group of target_file are those of the user. If target_file is a link to another file, cp will overwrite the link destination with the contents of source_file; the link(s) from target_file will remain.

In the second synopsis form, one or more source_files are copied to the directory specified by target. For each source_file specified, a new file with the same mode (and ACL if applicable), is created in target; the owner and group are those of the user making the copy. It is an error if any source_file is a file of type directory, if target either does not exist or is not a directory.

In the third synopsis form, one or more directories specified by source_dir are copied to the directory specified by target. Either -r or -R must be specified. For each source_dir, cp will copy all files and subdirectories.

OPTIONS

The following options are supported for both /usr/bin/cp and /usr/xpg4/bin/cp:

-f

Unlink. If a file descriptor for a destination file cannot be obtained, attempt to unlink the destination file and proceed.

-i

Interactive. cp will prompt for confirmation whenever the copy would overwrite an existing target. A y answer means that the copy should proceed. Any other answer prevents cp from overwriting target.

-r

Recursive. cp will copy the directory and all its files, including any subdirectories and their files to target.

-R

Same as -r, except pipes are replicated, not read from.

/usr/bin/cp

The following option is supported for /usr/bin/cp only:

-p

Preserve. cp duplicates not only the contents of source_file, but also preserves the owner and group id, permissions modes, modification and access time, and ACLs if applicable. Note that the command may fail if ACLs are copied to a file system that does not support ACLs. The command will not fail if unable to preserve modification and access time or permission modes. If unable to preserve owner and group id, cp will not fail, and it will clear S_ISUID and S_ISGID bits in the target. cp will print a diagnostic message to stderr and return a non-zero exit status if unable to clear these bits.

In order to preserve the owner and group id, permission modes, and modification and access times, users must have the appropriate file access permissions; this includes being superuser or the same owner id as the destination file.

/usr/xpg4/bin/cp

The following option is supported for /usr/xpg4/bin/cp only:

-p

Preserve. cp duplicates not only the contents of source_file, but also preserves the owner and group id, permission modes, modification and access time, and ACLs if applicable. Note that the command may fail if ACLs are copied to a file system that does not support ACLs. If unable to duplicate the modification and access time or the permission modes, cp will print a diagnostic message to stderr and return a non-zero exit status. If unable to preserve owner and group id, cp will not fail, and it will clear S_ISUID and S_ISGID bits in the target. cp will print a diagnostic message to stderr and return a non-zero exit status if unable to clear these bits.

In order to preserve the owner and group id, permission modes, and modification and access times, users must have the appropriate file access permissions; this includes being superuser or the same owner id as the destination file.

OPERANDS

The following operands are supported:

source_file

A pathname of a regular file to be copied.

source_dir

A pathname of a directory to be copied.

target_file

A pathname of an existing or non-existing file, used for the output when a single file is copied.

target

A pathname of a directory to contain the copied files.

USAGE

See largefile(5) for the description of the behavior of cp when encountering files greater than or equal to 2 Gbyte ( 2³¹ bytes).

EXAMPLES

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Example 1 To copy a file:




example% cp goodies goodies.oldexample% ls goodies* goodies goodies.old

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Example 2 To copy a list of files to a destination directory:




example% cp ~/src/* /tmp

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Example 3 To copy a directory, first to a new, and then to an existing destination directory:




example% ls ~/bkup /usr/example/fred/bkup not foundexample% cp -r ~/src ~/bkupexample% ls -R ~/bkup x.c y.c z.shexample% cp -r ~/src ~/bkupexample% ls -R ~/bkup src x.c y.c z.sh src: x.c y.c z.s

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ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES

See environ(5) for descriptions of the following environment variables that affect the execution of cp: LC_COLLATE, LC_CTYPE, LC_MESSAGES, and NLSPATH.

EXIT STATUS

The following exit values are returned:

0

All files were copied successfully.

>0

An error occurred.

ATTRIBUTES

See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attributes:

/usr/bin/cp

ATTRIBUTE TYPE	ATTRIBUTE VALUE
Availability	SUNWcsu
CSI	enabled

/usr/xpg4/bin/cp

ATTRIBUTE TYPE	ATTRIBUTE VALUE
Availability	SUNWxcu4
CSI	enabled

SEE ALSO

chmod(1), chown(1), setfacl(1), utime(2), attributes(5), environ(5), largefile(5), XPG4(5)

NOTES

The permission modes of the source file are preserved in the copy.

A – permits the user to mark the end of any command line options explicitly, thus allowing cp to recognize filename arguments that begin with a -. If a – and a - both appear on the same command line, the second will be interpreted as a filename.

SunOS 5.8  Last Revised 22 Apr 1999

NAME | SYNOPSIS | DESCRIPTION | OPTIONS | OPERANDS | USAGE | EXAMPLES | ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES | EXIT STATUS | ATTRIBUTES | SEE ALSO | NOTES