3.1.5. cp - copy files or folders

• Use cp to copy files or folders

  • The [source] is the original file/folder or /path/to/OriginalFile or /path/to/OriginalFolder

  • The [destination] is where you want the new copy to go, this can be in the same folder, or to another path (/different/path/to/NewFile)

cp [source] [destination]

• Again, both [source] and [destination] can use absolute or relative paths

# Copy file in current working directory, OriginalFile.txt, to another directory in /path/to/destination and name it NewFile.txt
cp OriginalFile.txt /path/to/destination/NewFile.txt 

# Copy file from another directory here (.)
cp /path/to/OriginalFile.txt . 

• The . means ./ or the current directory you’re in

  • Remember to go back a folder, we run cd ../ ?

  • ../ points back on directory while ./ means the current one

3.1.5.1. Copy Folders with cp -r

• Copying a directory requires the option -r.

# Option, -r, tells cp to copy the entire folder to a new path
cp -r directory /path/to/destination

# Can also copy things "here" (.)
cp /path/to/directory .

# Copy directory in the current working directory using the name, directory2
cp -r directory directory2

To copy file1 to file2 (new name):

cp [FILE_1] [FILE_2]

Copy folders:

cp -r [FOLDER_1] [FOLDER_2]

Use cp to copy files or directories from one place to another.

• cp creates NEW versions of the sources, so editing the copy won’t affect the original (and vice versa).

Note that it will overwrite the destination if it already exists.

cp srcFile.txt clone.txt

or

cp -r srcDirectory/ dst/ # recursively copy

Copying can be down with paths

cp -r /path/to/dir_1 /path/to/dir_2