Copying directories (cp command)
Use the cp command to create a copy of the contents of the file or directory specified by the SourceFile or SourceDirectory parameters into the file or directory specified by the TargetFile or TargetDirectory parameters.
If the file specified as the TargetFile exists, the copy writes over the original contents of the file. If you are copying more than one SourceFile, the target must be a directory.
To place a copy of the SourceFile into a directory, specify a path to an existing directory for the TargetDirectory parameter. Files maintain their respective names when copied to a directory unless you specify a new file name at the end of the path. The cp command also copies entire directories into other directories if you specify the -r or -R flags.
- To copy all the files in the /home/accounts/customers/orders directory
to the /home/accounts/customers/shipments directory,
type the following:
This copies the files, but not the directories, from the orders directory into the shipments directory.cp /home/accounts/customers/orders/* /home/accounts/customers/shipments - To copy a directory, including all its files and subdirectories, to another
directory, type the following:
This copies the customers directory, including all its files, subdirectories, and the files in those subdirectories, into the vendors directory.cp -R /home/accounts/customers /home/accounts/vendors