-f 

Copy a file and its shadow file, attempt to remove and unlink the destination file, and proceed with the copying process. The removal and unlinking only happen if the destination file exists but has no "write" permission. 

-i 

Prompt for confirmation before overwriting an existing target file or directory. 

-p 

Copy a file and its shadow file to another file, while preserving the file attributes. 

file1 

Specify a source file to copy to a destination file. 

file2 

Specify a destination file or new file name to which the source file can copy. 

file 

Specify a source file to copy to a destination directory. 

dir 

Specify a destination directory or new directory name to which the source file can copy. 

-R 

Copy a directory and every file or directory under it, along with all associated shadow files, to another directory. 

dir1 

Specify a source directory to copy to a destination directory. 

dir2 

Specify a destination directory or new directory name to which the source directory can copy.