CP(1)CP(1)NAMEcp - copy files
SYNOPSIS
/usr/bin/cp [-afip@/] source_file target_file
/usr/bin/cp [-afip@/] source_file... target
/usr/bin/cp [-r | -R [-H | -L | -P]] [-afip@/] source_dir... target
/usr/bin/cp [-R | -R [-H | -L | -P]] [-afip@/] source_dir... target
/usr/xpg4/bin/cp [-afip@/] source_file target_file
/usr/xpg4/bin/cp [-afip@/] source_file... target
/usr/xpg4/bin/cp [-r | -R [-H | -L | -P]] [-afip@/] source_dir... target
/usr/xpg4/bin/cp [-R | -R [-H | -L | -P]] [-afip@/] source_dir... target
DESCRIPTION
In the first synopsis form, neither source_file nor target_file are
directory files, nor can they have the same name. The cp utility copies
the contents of source_file to the destination path named by tar‐
get_file. If target_file exists, cp overwrites its contents, but the
mode (and ACL if applicable), owner, and group associated with it are
not changed. The last modification time of target_file and the last
access time of source_file are set to the time the copy was made. If
target_file does not exist, cp creates a new file named target_file
that has the same mode as source_file except that the sticky bit is not
set unless the user is super-user. In this case, the owner and group of
target_file are those of the user, unless the setgid bit is set on the
directory containing the newly created file. If the directory's setgid
bit is set, the newly created file has the group of the containing
directory rather than of the creating user. If target_file is a link to
another file, cp overwrites the link destination with the contents of
source_file; the link(s) from target_file remains.
In the second synopsis form, one or more source_files are copied to the
directory specified by target. It is an error if any source_file is a
file of type directory, if target either does not exist or is not a
directory.
In the third or fourth synopsis forms, one or more directories speci‐
fied by source_dir are copied to the directory specified by target.
Either the -r or -R must be specified. For each source_dir, cp copies
all files and subdirectories.
OPTIONS
The following options are supported for both /usr/bin/cp and
/usr/xpg4/bin/cp:
-a
Archive mode. Same as -RpP.
-f
Unlink. If a file descriptor for a destination file cannot be
obtained, this option attempts to unlink the destination file and
proceed.
-H
Takes actions based on the type and contents of the file refer‐
enced by any symbolic link specified as a source_file operand.
If the source_file operand is a symbolic link, then cp copies the
file referenced by the symbolic link for the source_file operand.
All other symbolic links encountered during traversal of a file
hierarchy are preserved.
-i
Interactive. cp prompts for confirmation whenever the copy would
overwrite an existing target. An affirmative response means that
the copy should proceed. Any other answer prevents cp from over‐
writing target.
-L
Takes actions based on the type and contents of the file refer‐
enced by any symbolic link specified as a source_file operand or
any symbolic links encountered during traversal of a file hierar‐
chy.
Copies files referenced by symbolic links. Symbolic links encoun‐
tered during traversal of a file hierarchy are not preserved.
-p
Preserve. The cp utility duplicates not only the contents of
source_file, but also attempts to preserve its ACL, access and
modification times, extended attributes, extended system
attributes, file mode, and owner and group ids.
If cp is unable to preserve the access and modification times,
extended attributes, or the file mode, cp does not consider it a
failure. If cp is unable to preserve the owner and group id, the
copy does not fail, but cp silently clears the S_ISUID and
S_ISGID bits from the file mode of the target. The copy fails if
cp is unable to clear these bits. If cp is unable to preserve the
ACL or extended system attributes, the copy fails. If the copy
fails, then a diagnostic message is written to stderr and (after
processing any remaining operands) cp exits with a non-zero exit
status.
-P
Takes actions on any symbolic link specified as a source_file op‐
erand or any symbolic link encountered during traversal of a file
hierarchy.
Copies symbolic links. Symbolic links encountered during traver‐
sal of a file hierarchy are preserved.
-r
Recursive. cp copies the directory and all its files, including
any subdirectories and their files to target. Unless the -H, -L,
or -P option is specified, the -L option is used as the default
mode.
-R
Same as -r, except pipes are replicated, not read from.
-@
Preserves extended attributes. cp attempts to copy all of the
source file's extended attributes along with the file data to the
destination file.
-/
Preserves extended attributes and extended system attributes.
Along with the file's data, the cp utility attempts to copy
extended attributes and extended system attributes from each
source file, and extended system attributes associated with
extended attributes to the destination file. If cp is unable to
copy extended attributes or extended system attributes, then a
diagnostic message is written to stderr and (after processing any
remaining operands) exits with a non-zero exit status.
Specifying more than one of the mutually-exclusive options -H, -L, and
-P is not considered an error. The last option specified determines the
behavior of the utility.
/usr/bin/cp
If the -p option is specified with either the -@ option or the -/
option, /usr/bin/cp behaves as follows
o When both -p and -@ are specified in any order, the copy
fails if extended attributes cannot be copied.
o When both -p and -/ are specified in any order, the copy
fails if extended system attributes cannot be copied.
/usr/xpg4/bin/cp
If the -p option is specified with either the -@ option or the -/
option, /usr/xpg4/bin/cp behaves as follows:
o When both -p and -@ are specified, the last option specified
determines whether the copy fails if extended attributes
cannot be preserved.
o When both -p and -/ are specified, the last option specified
determines whether the copy fails if extended system
attributes cannot be preserved.
OPERANDS
The following operands are supported:
source_file
A pathname of a regular file to be copied.
source_dir
A pathname of a directory to be copied.
target_file
A pathname of an existing or non-existing file, used for
the output when a single file is copied.
target
A pathname of a directory to contain the copied files.
USAGE
See largefile(5) for the description of the behavior of cp when encoun‐
tering files greater than or equal to 2 Gbyte ( 2^31 bytes).
EXAMPLES
Example 1 Copying a File
The following example copies a file:
example% cp goodies goodies.old
example% ls goodies*
goodies goodies.old
Example 2 Copying a List of Files
The following example copies a list of files to a destination direc‐
tory:
example% cp ~/src/* /tmp
Example 3 Copying a Directory
The following example copies a directory, first to a new, and then to
an existing destination directory
example% ls ~/bkup
/usr/example/fred/bkup not found
example% cp-r ~/src ~/bkup
example% ls -R ~/bkup
x.c y.c z.sh
example% cp-r ~/src ~/bkup
example% ls -R ~/bkup
src x.c y.c z.sh
src:
x.c y.c z.s
Example 4 Copying Extended File System Attributes
The following example copies extended file system attributes:
$ ls -/ c file1
-rw-r--r-- 1 foo staff 0 Oct 29 20:04 file1
{AH-----m--}
$ cp -/ file1 file2
$ ls -/c file2
-rw-r--r-- 1 foo staff 0 Oct 29 20:17 file2
{AH-----m--}
Example 5 Failing to Copy Extended System Attributes
The following example fails to copy extended system attributes:
$ ls -/c file1
-rw-r--r-- 1 foo staff 0 Oct 29 20:04 file1
{AH-----m--}
$ cp -/ file1 /tmp
cp: Failed to copy extended system attributes from file1 to /tmp/file1
$ ls -/c /tmp/file1
-rw-r--r-- 1 foo staff 0 Oct 29 20:09 /tmp/file1
{}
ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
See environ(5) for descriptions of the following environment variables
that affect the execution of cp: LANG, LC_ALL, LC_COLLATE, LC_CTYPE,
LC_MESSAGES, and NLSPATH.
Affirmative responses are processed using the extended regular expres‐
sion defined for the yesexpr keyword in the LC_MESSAGES category of the
user's locale. The locale specified in the LC_COLLATE category defines
the behavior of ranges, equivalence classes, and multi-character col‐
lating elements used in the expression defined for yesexpr. The locale
specified in LC_CTYPE determines the locale for interpretation of
sequences of bytes of text data a characters, the behavior of character
classes used in the expression defined for the yesexpr. See locale(5).
EXIT STATUS
The following exit values are returned:
0
All files were copied successfully.
>0
An error occurred.
ATTRIBUTES
See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attributes:
/usr/bin/cp
┌────────────────────┬─────────────────┐
│ ATTRIBUTE TYPE │ ATTRIBUTE VALUE │
├────────────────────┼─────────────────┤
│CSI │ Enabled │
├────────────────────┼─────────────────┤
│Interface Stability │ Committed │
└────────────────────┴─────────────────┘
/usr/xpg4/bin/cp
┌────────────────────┬─────────────────┐
│ ATTRIBUTE TYPE │ ATTRIBUTE VALUE │
├────────────────────┼─────────────────┤
│CSI │ Enabled │
├────────────────────┼─────────────────┤
│Interface Stability │ Committed │
└────────────────────┴─────────────────┘
SEE ALSOchmod(1), chown(1), setfacl(1), utime(2), fgetattr(3C), attributes(5),
environ(5), fsattr(5), largefile(5), locale(5), standards(5)NOTES
The permission modes of the source file are preserved in the copy.
A -- permits the user to mark the end of any command line options
explicitly, thus allowing cp to recognize filename arguments that begin
with a -.
Apr 15, 2013 CP(1)
