NAME

cp, cp0 − copy

SYNOPSIS

cp [ −ip ] file1 file2

cp [ −ipr ] file ... directory

DESCRIPTION

File1 is copied onto file2. By default, the mode and owner of file2 are preserved if it already existed; otherwise the mode of the source file modified by the current umask(2) is used.  The −p option causes cp to attempt to preserve (duplicate) in its copies the modification times and modes of the source files, ignoring the present umask.

In the second form, one or more files are copied into the directory with their original file-names. 

Cp refuses to copy a file onto itself. 

If the −i option is specified, cp will prompt the user with the name of the file whenever the copy will cause an old file to be overwritten. An answer of ‘y’ will cause cp to continue. Any other answer will prevent it from overwriting the file. 

If the −r option is specified and any of the source files are directories, cp copies each subtree rooted at that name; in this case the destination must be a directory. 

SEE ALSO

cat(1), mv(1), rcp(1C)

BUGS

Cp will create ‘holes’ in the output file for completely zero disc blocks, this saves considerable disc space on RISCiX systems. Some NFS fileservers (e.g. those running 4.2BSD) have a bug which cause them to add a zero byte to files copied in this manner.  This can be avoided by using cp0 which is identical to cp except that it copies the file byte for byte. 

4th Berkeley Distribution  —  Revision 1.6 of 02/07/90