cp command is used to copy the files and directories from SOURCE to DESTINATION. You can use multiple source paths and one destination path. copy command alone can’t copy files from one source to multiple destinations, if you want to copy files from one source to multiple destination using cp command you can combine with xargs or for loop you can do it.

cp command 15 practical examples

Syntax:

cp [OPTION] SOURCE DEST

Very first example without using any options file can copy from one location to another location within same server

arkit$ cp SRC/a DST/

above command copied the file a but file property has changed in destination

# cp -a SRC/b DST/

Option -a means archiving content and not exactly copy

Create backup files when your copying same named files to destination. This option will not overwrite files. In destination directory backup file will be renamed or extended with (~) tild sign.

$cp --backup SRC/e DST/

Don’t Copy content Copy file Attributes

cp --attributes-only cp/test2.txt dst/

As shown above Don’t copy the file data, just the attributes.

In other way copy content of the special file don’t copy it’s properties

cp --copy-contents /etc/passwd /tmp/

Create Hard Links and Soft Links

Along with cp command using -l will create hard link and -s will create soft link

cp -l cp/test4.txt dst/

Creating hard link is keeping destination file updated with lasted data of source automatically, when you delete either of the file another file is available for you

cp -s /src/test.txt /tmp/test.txt

Preserve file properties while copying

Using –preserve=Attributes like (mode,ownership,timestamps, context,links, xattr, all)

which file property you want to preserve after copy mention and preserve it.

Copy Directories using cp command in Linux

To copy directories using cp command in Linux, add option -R or -r

[user@rhel7 ~]$ cp SRC/dir1/ DST/
cp: omitting directory ‘SRC/dir1/’
[user@rhel7 ~]$ cp -R SRC/dir1/ DST/

override the usual backup suffix. We already saw when using –backup it will create an files with (~) to make them as backup files. -S option give us to replace ~ with any other character or number

@rhel7 ~]$ cp -S2 SRC/d DST/

Update destination file when source file is updated, without replacing/overwriting

cp -u SRC/k DST/

Option -u = Update

Apply SELinux context to file using cp command

cp -Z /root/data* /tmp

last and final option to know cp command core utility version

cp --version

Conclusion

Copy files and directories in different way with different options, most of the cases Linux administrators use cp -R, cp -p and cp -a.

Related Articles

awk command explained

Everything Linux tutorial what you need for your career

chmod command to change file permissions

100 Linux commands Video tutorial