Copying a file

Use the cp command to copy a file. The syntax is

cp -ip filename1 filename2

where filename1 is the file you want copied and filename2 is where you want it copied to.

For example,

cp memo memo.bak

would copy the file "memo" to a file named "memo.bak".

The DOS equivalent of this command is copy.

As with all commands, you can indicate directory paths using the following abbreviations:

.	current directory
..	parent (previous) directory
~	home directory

For example, the command

cp ~/personal/letter ~/old

would copy the file "letter" from the "Personal" directory and create a copy in the "old" directory.

Warning: If filename2 already exists, cp replaces the contents of filename2 with the contents of filename1.

If filename2 does not exist, cp creates it and copies the contents of filename1 into it.

The -i option sets a confirmation prompt whenever cp would overwrite an existing file.

The -p option preserves the modification times and security permissions of the original file so that the newly created file (filename2) has the same characteristics as the original file (filename1).

If you do not include -p, the cp command sets the modification time of filename2 to be the time you issued the command, even if the original file was last changed weeks or months ago. The -p option does not copy AFS access privileges (see Security for information about AFS privileges).

Last modified July 20, 2004 by cawalker