Cp_ file

Creating symlinks only can be done in current directory. Once I manage to be there, I can run cp -s command above. Its marked with arrow sign after the file name.

To do this, we can use -P option. When cp command found a file with symbolic links, it will copy the as is. Take a look at the sample below. The file type still a symbolic link. Now we can do this with -L option.

Basically, this is an opposite of -P option above. This is known from the file size. When we are going to copy a directory, we will use -r or -R option. But we can also use -a option to archive file. This will create an exact copy of files and directories including symbolic links if any. By default, when copying activity is success, we will see a command prompt again. If you want to know what happen during the copying file, we can use -v option.

This additional information will make us more sure about the copying activity. Then we edit it using vi, add some content and save it. Next, we see the file size has changed into 36 bytes. When we use -u option, combined with -v option to see what is being done, cp command will only copy a file s which is newer from destination directory.

Interactive mode will ask if the destination folder has already the file. To activate interactive mode, use -i option. When the destination folder already have the file, by default cp command will overwrite the same file in the destination directory. Using --backup option, cp command will make a backup of each existing destination file. Cp command also provides us with --attributes-only option.

As we can guess from its name, this option will only copy a file name and its attributes without copying any data. Using --attributes-only option, the copied file will have 0 bytes file size. This is because the content of file is not being copied. Using -f option will force the copying activity. This tutorial will teach you to use the Linux cp command — the command that copies files from one directory to another.

Linux is the preferred platform for a lot of developers. The cp command has a simple purpose — to copy files and folders from one place to another. It can do this across any file system connected to the Linux system and will preserve the original file while giving you options to rename and overwrite the copied files. The syntax for the cp command according to its manual page is :. When entering your copy command, you will be able to specify what you want to be done with files that already exist, and whether to include directory contents in the copy.

Here are some commonly used options:. Simply enter the cp command followed by the path of the source and destination files, separated by a single space:. Enter the cp command followed by the -r recursive option, and the path of the source and destination directories, separated by a single space. The entire source directory will be copied to the destination directory, with its original name:. To copy multiple files to the destination directory, just list them all separated by a space — the last path given will be treated as the destination:.

You can also do the same when copying multiple directories if you pass the -r Recursive option:. Symlink files are files that do not contain data and are just a reference to another file on the disk. They are excluded by default when using the cp command. To include them use the -d option:.

This example will copy only files less than 7 days old, by filtering them using the find command, and then executing the cp command:. Copying files is a necessary day-to-day task and the syntax will quickly become second nature to you. For other common Linux command line tasks, check out our other articles. I'm Brad, and I'm nearing 20 years of experience with Linux.