cp

cp is a shell command for copying files and directories.

• GNU Coreutils Project Homepage [EN]

• GNU Coreutils [EN] @ Fedora Package
• GNU Coreutils [EN] @ Homebrew Formula

• cp [EN] @ Wikipedia
• cp [DE] @ Wikipedia

Documentation

• cp [EN] @ GNU Coreutils Manual

• man 1 'cp'
  • BSD [EN]
  • GNU [EN]

Syntax

cp [PARAMETER ...] SRC DST
cp [PARAMETER ...] SRC [...] DIR

Parameters

General

The following parameters can be used with all version of cp:

NOTE:

The BSD version only supports the short form (e.g. -f) of these parameters!

-f, --force

If an existing destination file cannot be opened, remove it and try again.

-l, --link

Hard link files instead of copying.

-P, --no-dereference

Never follow symbolic links in SRC.

-r, -R, --recursive

Copy directories recursively.

-s, --symbolic-link

Make symbolic links instead of copying.

GNU

The following parameters can be used with the GNU version of cp:

-t DIRECTORY, --target-directory=DIRECTORY

Copy all SRC arguments into DIRECTORY.