Learn how to copy files in Linux using the cp command. This comprehensive guide covers everything from the basic syntax to advanced options, with examples.
cp
commandThe general syntax for the cp
command is as follows:
cp [OPTIONS] SOURCE... DESTINATION
The SOURCE
can contain one or more files or directories as arguments, and the DESTINATION
argument can be a single file or directory .
SOURCE
and DESTINATION
arguments are both files, the cp
command copies the first file to the second one. If the file doesn’t exists the command creates it.SOURCE
has multiple files or directories as arguments, the DESTINATION
argument must be a directory. In this situation, the SOURCE
files and directories are moved to the DESTINATION
directory.SOURCE
and DESTINATION
arguments are both directories, the cp
command copies the first directory into the second one.To copy files and directories, you must have at least read permissions on the source file and write permission on the destination directory. Otherwise, a permission denied error is shown.
The most basic scenario of using cp
is to copy a file in the current working directory. For example, to copy a file named file.txt
to file_backup.txt
you wound run the following command:
cp file file_backup
or
cp file{,_backup}
To copy a file to another directory, specify the absolute or the relative path to the destination directory.
When only the directory name is specified as a destination, the copied file have the same name as the original file.
In the following example we are copying the file file.txt
to the /backup
directory:
cp file.txt /backup
#command #linux