cp

Options

--target-directory=<target-directory>, -t <target-directory>

cp-help-target-directory

--no-target-directory, -T

cp-help-no-target-directory

--interactive, -i

cp-help-interactive

--link, -l

cp-help-link

--no-clobber, -n

cp-help-no-clobber

--recursive, -R, -r

cp-help-recursive

--strip-trailing-slashes

cp-help-strip-trailing-slashes

--debug

cp-help-debug

--verbose, -v

cp-help-verbose

--symbolic-link, -s

cp-help-symbolic-link

--force, -f

cp-help-force

--remove-destination

cp-help-remove-destination

--backup=<CONTROL>

make a backup of each existing destination file

-b

like --backup but does not accept an argument

--suffix=<SUFFIX>, -S <SUFFIX>

override the usual backup suffix

--update

move only when the SOURCE file is newer than the destination file or when the destination file is missing

-u

like --update but does not accept an argument

--reflink=<WHEN>

cp-help-reflink

--attributes-only

cp-help-attributes-only

--preserve=<ATTR_LIST>

cp-help-preserve

--preserve-default-attributes, -p

cp-help-preserve-default

--no-preserve=<ATTR_LIST>

cp-help-no-preserve

--parents

cp-help-parents

--no-dereference, -P

cp-help-no-dereference

--dereference, -L

cp-help-dereference

-H

cp-help-cli-symbolic-links

--archive, -a

cp-help-archive

-d

cp-help-no-dereference-preserve-links

--one-file-system, -x

cp-help-one-file-system

--sparse=<WHEN>

cp-help-sparse

-Z

cp-help-selinux

--context=<CTX>

cp-help-context

--progress, -g

cp-help-progress

--copy-contents

cp-help-copy-contents

Examples

Copy a file to another location:

cp {{path/to/source_file.ext}} {{path/to/target_file.ext}}

Copy a file into another directory, keeping the filename:

cp {{path/to/source_file.ext}} {{path/to/target_parent_directory}}

Recursively copy a directory's contents to another location (if the destination exists, the directory is copied inside it):

cp {{[-r|--recursive]}} {{path/to/source_directory}} {{path/to/target_directory}}

Copy a directory recursively, in verbose mode (shows files as they are copied):

cp {{[-vr|--verbose --recursive]}} {{path/to/source_directory}} {{path/to/target_directory}}

Copy multiple files at once to a directory:

cp {{[-t|--target-directory]}} {{path/to/destination_directory}} {{path/to/file1 path/to/file2 ...}}

Copy all files with a specific extension to another location, in interactive mode (prompts user before overwriting):

cp {{[-i|--interactive]}} {{*.ext}} {{path/to/target_directory}}

Follow symbolic links before copying:

cp {{[-L|--dereference]}} {{link}} {{path/to/target_directory}}

Use the full path of source files, creating any missing intermediate directories when copying:

cp --parents {{source/path/to/file}} {{path/to/target_file}}

The examples are provided by the tldr-pages project under the CC BY 4.0 License.

Please note that, as uutils is a work in progress, some examples might fail.