In some situations, it is necessary to create a copy of particular file or directory before going to make any changes on it. In Linux we can use the command “cp” to create a copy of Files/Directories.
Syntax:
cp [OPTION]... SOURCE DEST
Note : Use -r switch to copy a directory.
Example:
[root@localhost ~]# touch copytest
[root@localhost ~]# cp copytest /root/Test/
---
[root@localhost ~]# ll /root/Test/
total 8
drwxr-xr-x. 2 root root 4096 Mar 14 21:20 arun1
-rw-r--r--. 1 root root 0 Mar 14 23:59 copytest
-rw-r--r--. 1 root root 0 Feb 1 05:01 crybit
drwxr-xr-x. 2 root root 4096 Mar 14 21:29 Dir
-rw-r--r--. 1 root root 0 Mar 14 21:26 file2
---
Switches of the cp command:
1, -f, –force
do not prompt before overwriting
2, -i, –interactive
prompt before overwrite
3, -n, –no-clobber
do not overwrite an existing file
4, –preserve[=ATTR_LIST]
preserve the specified attributes (default: mode,ownership,timestamps), if possible additional attributes: context, links, xattr, all
5, -p
same as –preserve=mode,ownership,timestamps
6, -a, –archive
same as -dR –preserve=all
7, -d
same as –no-dereference –preserve=links
8, -l, –link
link files instead of copying
9, -s, –symbolic-link
make symbolic links instead of copying
10, -R, -r, –recursive
copy directories recursively
11, -u, –update
copy only when the SOURCE file is newer than the destination file or when the destination file is missing
12, -v, –verbose
explain what is being done
13, -x, –one-file-system
stay on this file system
14, -Z, –context=CONTEXT
set security context of copy to CONTEXT
15, –help
display this help and exit
16, –version
output version information and exit
That’s it 🙂
Related posts:
groupdel, groupmems, groupmod, useradd , usermod , chgrp, chown, ls, head, tail, top, ps, find, crontab, ftp commands, tar, rpm, rkhunter, Rsync, grep, netstat command switches, netstat command’s practical usages, OpenVZ commands, lsof command
