/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
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
target_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
specified 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.
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
referenced 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
overwriting target.
-L
Takes actions based on the type and contents of the file
referenced by any symbolic link specified as a
source_file operand or
any symbolic links encountered during traversal of a file hierarchy.
Copies files referenced by symbolic links. Symbolic links
encountered 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 operand or any symbolic link encountered during traversal
of a file hierarchy.
Copies symbolic links. Symbolic links encountered during traversal
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.
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.
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.
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.
See largefile(5) for the description of the behavior of cp when
encountering files greater than or equal to 2 Gbyte ( 2^31 bytes).
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
directory:
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
{}
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
expression 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 collating 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).
The following exit values are returned:
0
All files were copied successfully.
>0
An error occurred.
See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attributes:
| ATTRIBUTE
TYPE |
ATTRIBUTE VALUE |
| CSI |
Enabled |
| Interface Stability |
Committed |
| ATTRIBUTE
TYPE |
ATTRIBUTE VALUE |
| CSI |
Enabled |
| Interface Stability |
Committed |
chmod(1), chown(1), setfacl(1), utime(2),
fgetattr(3C), attributes(5), environ(5),
fsattr(5), largefile(5), locale(5), standards(5)
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 -.