illumos: manual page: cp.1

CP(1) User Commands CP(1)

NAME

cp - copy files

SYNOPSIS

/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

DESCRIPTION

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.

OPTIONS

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.

/usr/bin/cp
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.

/usr/xpg4/bin/cp
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.

OPERANDS

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.

USAGE

See largefile(7) for the description of the behavior of cp when
encountering files greater than or equal to 2 Gbyte ( 2^31 bytes).

EXAMPLES

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
{}

ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES

See environ(7) 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(7).

EXIT STATUS

The following exit values are returned:

0
All files were copied successfully.

>0
An error occurred.

ATTRIBUTES

NOTES

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 -.

May 17, 2020 CP(1)