In the first synopsis form, the
cp
utility copies the contents of the
source
file to the
target
file.
In the second synopsis form,
the contents of each named
source
file are copied to the destination
directory.
The names of the files themselves are not changed.
If
cp
detects an attempt to copy a file to itself, the copy will fail.
The options are as follows:
-f
For each existing destination pathname, remove it and
create a new file, without prompting for confirmation,
regardless of its permissions.
This option overrides any use of
-i.
-H
If the
-R
option is also specified, symbolic links on the command-line are followed.
(Symbolic links encountered in the tree traversal are not followed.)
-i
Write a prompt to the standard error output before copying a file
that would overwrite an existing file.
If the response from the standard input begins with the character
‘y’,
the file copy is attempted.
-L
If the
-R
option is also specified, all symbolic links are followed.
-P
If the
-R
option is also specified, no symbolic links are followed.
-p
Preserve in the copy as many of the modification time, access time,
file flags, file mode, user ID, and group ID as allowed by permissions.
If the user ID and group ID cannot be preserved, no error message
is displayed and the exit value is not altered.
If the source file has its set-user-ID bit on and the user ID cannot
be preserved, the set-user-ID bit is not preserved
in the copy's permissions.
If the source file has its set-group-ID bit on and the group ID cannot
be preserved, the set-group-ID bit is not preserved
in the copy's permissions.
If the source file has both its set-user-ID and set-group-ID bits on,
and either the user ID or group ID cannot be preserved, neither
the set-user-ID nor set-group-ID bits are preserved in the copy's
permissions.
-R
If
source
designates a directory,
cp
copies the directory and the entire subtree connected at that point.
Created directories have the same mode as the corresponding source
directory, unmodified by the process's umask.
This option also causes symbolic links to be copied, rather than
followed, and
special files to be created, rather than being copied as normal files.
However,
cp
copies hard linked files as separate files.
To preserve hard links,
use a utility such as
pax(1)
or
tar(1)
instead.
For each destination file that already exists, its contents are
overwritten if permissions allow, but its mode, user ID, and group
ID are unchanged.
In the second synopsis form,
the destination specified by the
directory
operand must exist unless there is only one named
source
which is a directory and the
-R
flag is specified.
If the destination file does not exist, the mode of the source file is
used as modified by the file mode creation mask
.Pf ( Ic umask ,
see
csh(1/)).
If the source file has its set-user-ID bit on, that bit is removed
unless both the source file and the destination file are owned by the
same user.
If the source file has its set-group-ID bit on, that bit is removed
unless both the source file and the destination file are in the same
group and the user is a member of that group.
If both the set-user-ID and set-group-ID bits are set, all of the above
conditions must be fulfilled or both bits are removed.
Appropriate permissions are required for file creation or overwriting.
When a file containing large blocks of zero-valued bytes is copied,
cp
will attempt to create a sparse file.
Symbolic links are always followed unless the
-R
flag is set, in which case symbolic links are not followed, by default.
The
-H
or
-L
flags (in conjunction with the
-R
flag) cause symbolic links to be followed as described above.
The
-H,
-L,
and
-P
options are ignored unless the
-R
option is specified.
In addition, these options override each other and the
command's actions are determined by the last one specified.
The
cp
utility exits 0 on success or >0 if an error occurred.
EXAMPLES
Make a copy of file
foo
named
bar:
$ cp foo bar
Copy a group of files to the
/tmp
directory:
$ cp *.txt /tmp
Copy the directory
junk
and all of its contents (including any subdirectories) to the
/tmp
directory:
$ cp -R junk /tmp
The
cp
utility is compliant with the
specification.
Historic versions of the
cp
utility had a
-r
option.
This implementation supports that option; however, its use is strongly
discouraged, as it does not correctly copy special files, symbolic links
or FIFOs.