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<div class="SECT1">
<h1 class="SECT1"><a id="FILE-COMMANDS-COPYMOVE" name="FILE-COMMANDS-COPYMOVE">10.5 Copy
and Move</a></h1>

<div class="SECT2">
<h2 class="SECT2"><a id="FILE-COMMANDS-COPYMOVE-CP"
name="FILE-COMMANDS-COPYMOVE-CP">10.5.1 <tt class="COMMAND">cp</tt></a></h2>

<p><tt class="COMMAND">cp</tt>(1) copies files. DOS users will notice its similarity to
the <tt class="COMMAND">copy</tt> command. There are many options for <tt
class="COMMAND">cp</tt> , so you should have a look at the man page before using it.</p>

<p>A common use is to use <tt class="COMMAND">cp</tt> to copy a file from one location to
another. For example:</p>

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<tr>
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<pre class="SCREEN">
<samp class="PROMPT">%</samp> <kbd class="USERINPUT">cp hejaz /tmp</kbd>
</pre>
</td>
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</table>

<p>This copies the <tt class="FILENAME">hejaz</tt> file from the current directory to the
<tt class="FILENAME">/tmp</tt> directory.</p>

<p>Many users prefer to keep the timestamps preserved, as in this example:</p>

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<pre class="SCREEN">
<samp class="PROMPT">%</samp> <kbd class="USERINPUT">cp -a hejaz /tmp</kbd>
</pre>
</td>
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<p>This ensures that the timestamps are not modified in the copy.</p>

<p>To recursively copy the contents of a directory to another directory, you would issue
this command:</p>

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<pre class="SCREEN">
<samp class="PROMPT">%</samp> <kbd class="USERINPUT">cp -R <var
class="REPLACEABLE">mydir</var> /tmp</kbd>
</pre>
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<p>That will copy the <var class="REPLACEABLE">mydir</var> directory to the <tt
class="FILENAME">/tmp</tt> directory.</p>

<p>Also if you wish to copy a directory or a file and keep all it's old permissions and
time stamps and keep it exactly the same use <tt class="COMMAND">cp -p</tt>.</p>

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<samp class="PROMPT">%</samp> <kbd class="USERINPUT">ls -l file</kbd>
-rw-r--r--    1 root     vlad            4 Jan  1 15:27 file
<samp class="PROMPT">%</samp> <kbd class="USERINPUT">cp -p file /tmp</kbd>
<samp class="PROMPT">%</samp> <kbd class="USERINPUT">ls -l /tmp/file</kbd>
-rw-r--r--    1 root     vlad            4 Jan  1 15:27 file
</pre>
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<p><tt class="COMMAND">cp</tt> has many more options that are discussed in detail in the
online manual page.</p>
</div>

<div class="SECT2">
<h2 class="SECT2"><a id="AEN3712" name="AEN3712">10.5.2 <tt
class="COMMAND">mv</tt></a></h2>

<p><tt class="COMMAND">mv</tt>(1) moves files from one place to another. Sounds simple
enough doesn't it?</p>

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<samp class="PROMPT">%</samp> <kbd class="USERINPUT">mv oldfile /tmp/newfile</kbd>
</pre>
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<p><tt class="COMMAND">mv</tt> has a few useful command line options that are detailed in
the man page. In practice, <tt class="COMMAND">mv</tt> is almost never used with
commandline options.</p>
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