1.\"- 2.\" Copyright (c) 1989, 1990, 1993, 1994 3.\" The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved. 4.\" 5.\" This code is derived from software contributed to Berkeley by 6.\" the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. 7.\" 8.\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without 9.\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions 10.\" are met: 11.\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright 12.\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer. 13.\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright 14.\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the 15.\" documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution. 16.\" 3. Neither the name of the University nor the names of its contributors 17.\" may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software 18.\" without specific prior written permission. 19.\" 20.\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE REGENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND 21.\" ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE 22.\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE 23.\" ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE 24.\" FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL 25.\" DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS 26.\" OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) 27.\" HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT 28.\" LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY 29.\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF 30.\" SUCH DAMAGE. 31.\" 32.Dd July 9, 2025 33.Dt CP 1 34.Os 35.Sh NAME 36.Nm cp 37.Nd copy files 38.Sh SYNOPSIS 39.Nm 40.Oo 41.Fl R 42.Op Fl H | Fl L | Fl P 43.Oc 44.Op Fl f | i | n 45.Op Fl alNpsvx 46.Ar source_file target_file 47.Nm 48.Oo 49.Fl R 50.Op Fl H | Fl L | Fl P 51.Oc 52.Op Fl f | i | n 53.Op Fl alNpsvx 54.Ar source_file ... target_directory 55.Nm 56.Op Fl f | i | n 57.Op Fl alNPpsvx 58.Ar source_file target_file 59.Nm 60.Op Fl f | i | n 61.Op Fl alNPpsvx 62.Ar source_file ... target_directory 63.Sh DESCRIPTION 64In the first synopsis form, the 65.Nm 66utility copies the contents of the 67.Ar source_file 68to the 69.Ar target_file . 70In the second synopsis form, 71the contents of each named 72.Ar source_file 73is copied to the destination 74.Ar target_directory . 75The names of the files themselves are not changed. 76If 77.Nm 78detects an attempt to copy a file to itself, the copy will fail. 79.Pp 80The following options are available: 81.Bl -tag -width flag 82.It Fl H 83If the 84.Fl R 85option is specified, symbolic links on the command line are followed. 86(Symbolic links encountered in the tree traversal are not followed.) 87.It Fl L , Fl -dereference 88If the 89.Fl R 90option is specified, all symbolic links are followed. 91.It Fl P , Fl -no-dereference 92No symbolic links are followed. 93This is the default if the 94.Fl R 95option is specified. 96.It Fl R , Fl -recursive 97If 98.Ar source_file 99designates a directory, 100.Nm 101copies the directory and the entire subtree connected at that point. 102If the 103.Ar source_file 104ends in a 105.Pa / , 106the contents of the directory are copied rather than the 107directory itself. 108This option also causes symbolic links to be copied, rather than 109indirected through, and for 110.Nm 111to create special files rather than copying them as normal files. 112Created directories have the same mode as the corresponding source 113directory, unmodified by the process' umask. 114.Pp 115Note that 116.Nm 117copies hard linked files as separate files. 118If you need to preserve hard links, consider using 119.Xr tar 1 , 120.Xr cpio 1 , 121or 122.Xr pax 1 123instead. 124.It Fl a , Fl -archive 125Archive mode. 126Same as 127.Fl RpP . 128.It Fl f , Fl -force 129For each existing destination pathname, remove it and 130create a new file, without prompting for confirmation 131regardless of its permissions. 132(The 133.Fl f 134option overrides any previous 135.Fl i 136or 137.Fl n 138options.) 139.It Fl i , Fl -interactive 140Write a prompt to the standard error output before copying a file 141that would overwrite an existing file. 142If the response from the standard input begins with the character 143.Sq Li y 144or 145.Sq Li Y , 146the file copy is attempted. 147(The 148.Fl i 149option overrides any previous 150.Fl f 151or 152.Fl n 153options.) 154.It Fl l , Fl -link 155Create hard links to regular files in a hierarchy instead of copying. 156.It Fl N 157When used with 158.Fl p , 159suppress copying file flags. 160.It Fl n , Fl -no-clobber 161Do not overwrite an existing file. 162(The 163.Fl n 164option overrides any previous 165.Fl f 166or 167.Fl i 168options.) 169.It Fl p 170Preserve the following attributes of each source 171file in the copy: modification time, access time, 172file flags, file mode, ACL, user ID, and group ID, as allowed by permissions. 173.Pp 174If the user ID and group ID cannot be preserved, no error message 175is displayed and the exit value is not altered. 176.Pp 177If the source file has its set-user-ID bit on and the user ID cannot 178be preserved, the set-user-ID bit is not preserved 179in the copy's permissions. 180If the source file has its set-group-ID bit on and the group ID cannot 181be preserved, the set-group-ID bit is not preserved 182in the copy's permissions. 183If the source file has both its set-user-ID and set-group-ID bits on, 184and either the user ID or group ID cannot be preserved, neither 185the set-user-ID nor set-group-ID bits are preserved in the copy's 186permissions. 187.It Fl -sort 188Visit and traverse sources in (non-localized) lexicographical order. 189Normally, 190.Nm 191visits the sources in the order they were listed on the command line, 192and if recursing, traverses their contents in whichever order they 193were returned in by the kernel, which may be the order in which they 194were created, lexicographical order, or something else entirely. 195With 196.Fl -sort , 197the sources are both visited and traversed in lexicographical order. 198This is mostly useful for testing. 199.It Fl s , Fl -symbolic-link 200Create symbolic links to regular files in a hierarchy instead of copying. 201.It Fl v , Fl -verbose 202Be verbose, showing both the source and destination path of each file 203as is copied. 204.It Fl x , Fl -one-file-system 205Do not traverse file system mount points. 206.El 207.Pp 208For each destination file that already exists, its contents are 209overwritten if permissions allow. 210Its mode, user ID, and group 211ID are unchanged unless the 212.Fl p 213option was specified. 214.Pp 215In the second synopsis form, 216.Ar target_directory 217must exist unless there is only one named 218.Ar source_file 219which is a directory and the 220.Fl R 221flag is specified. 222.Pp 223If the destination file does not exist, the mode of the source file is 224used as modified by the file mode creation mask 225.Pf ( Ic umask , 226see 227.Xr csh 1 ) . 228If the source file has its set-user-ID bit on, that bit is removed 229unless both the source file and the destination file are owned by the 230same user. 231If the source file has its set-group-ID bit on, that bit is removed 232unless both the source file and the destination file are in the same 233group and the user is a member of that group. 234If both the set-user-ID and set-group-ID bits are set, all of the above 235conditions must be fulfilled or both bits are removed. 236.Pp 237Appropriate permissions are required for file creation or overwriting. 238.Pp 239Symbolic links are always followed unless the 240.Fl R 241flag is set, in which case symbolic links are not followed, by default. 242The 243.Fl H 244or 245.Fl L 246flags (in conjunction with the 247.Fl R 248flag) cause symbolic links to be followed as described above. 249The 250.Fl H , 251.Fl L 252and 253.Fl P 254options are ignored unless the 255.Fl R 256option is specified. 257In addition, these options override each other and the 258command's actions are determined by the last one specified. 259.Pp 260If 261.Nm 262receives a 263.Dv SIGINFO 264(see the 265.Cm status 266argument for 267.Xr stty 1 ) 268signal, the current input and output file and the percentage complete 269will be written to the standard output. 270.Sh EXIT STATUS 271.Ex -std 272.Sh EXAMPLES 273Make a copy of file 274.Pa foo 275named 276.Pa bar : 277.Pp 278.Dl $ cp foo bar 279.Pp 280Copy a group of files to the 281.Pa /tmp 282directory: 283.Pp 284.Dl $ cp *.txt /tmp 285.Pp 286Copy the directory 287.Pa junk 288and all of its contents (including any subdirectories) to the 289.Pa /tmp 290directory: 291.Pp 292.Dl $ cp -R junk /tmp 293.Sh COMPATIBILITY 294Historic versions of the 295.Nm 296utility had a 297.Fl r 298option. 299This implementation supports that option, however, its behavior 300is different from historical 301.Fx 302behavior. 303Use of this option 304is strongly discouraged as the behavior is 305implementation-dependent. 306In 307.Fx , 308.Fl r 309is a synonym for 310.Fl RL 311and works the same unless modified by other flags. 312Historical implementations 313of 314.Fl r 315differ as they copy special files as normal 316files while recreating a hierarchy. 317.Pp 318The 319.Fl a , 320.Fl l , 321.Fl N , 322.Fl n , 323.Fl s , 324.Fl v , 325and 326.Fl x 327options are non-standard and their use in scripts is not recommended. 328.Sh SEE ALSO 329.Xr mv 1 , 330.Xr umask 2 , 331.Xr fts 3 , 332.Xr symlink 7 333.Sh STANDARDS 334The 335.Nm 336command is expected to be 337.St -p1003.2 338compatible. 339.Sh HISTORY 340A 341.Nm 342command appeared in 343.At v1 . 344