1.\" Copyright (c) 1989, 1990, 1993, 1994 2.\" The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved. 3.\" 4.\" This code is derived from software contributed to Berkeley by 5.\" the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. 6.\" 7.\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without 8.\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions 9.\" are met: 10.\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright 11.\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer. 12.\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright 13.\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the 14.\" documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution. 15.\" 3. All advertising materials mentioning features or use of this software 16.\" must display the following acknowledgement: 17.\" This product includes software developed by the University of 18.\" California, Berkeley and its contributors. 19.\" 4. Neither the name of the University nor the names of its contributors 20.\" may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software 21.\" without specific prior written permission. 22.\" 23.\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE REGENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND 24.\" ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE 25.\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE 26.\" ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE 27.\" FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL 28.\" DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS 29.\" OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) 30.\" HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT 31.\" LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY 32.\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF 33.\" SUCH DAMAGE. 34.\" 35.\" @(#)cp.1 8.3 (Berkeley) 4/18/94 36.\" $Id: cp.1,v 1.6 1996/08/29 18:05:44 wosch Exp $ 37.\" 38.Dd April 18, 1994 39.Dt CP 1 40.Os BSD 4 41.Sh NAME 42.Nm cp 43.Nd copy files 44.Sh SYNOPSIS 45.Nm cp 46.Oo 47.Fl R 48.Op Fl H | Fl L | Fl P 49.Oc 50.Op Fl f | i 51.Op Fl p 52.Ar source_file target_file 53.Nm cp 54.Oo 55.Fl R 56.Op Fl H | Fl L | Fl P 57.Oc 58.Op Fl f | i 59.Op Fl p 60.Ar source_file ... target_directory 61.Sh DESCRIPTION 62In the first synopsis form, the 63.Nm cp 64utility copies the contents of the 65.Ar source_file 66to the 67.Ar target_file . 68In the second synopsis form, 69the contents of each named 70.Ar source_file 71is copied to the destination 72.Ar target_directory . 73The names of the files themselves are not changed. 74If 75.Nm cp 76detects an attempt to copy a file to itself, the copy will fail. 77.Pp 78The following options are available: 79.Bl -tag -width flag 80.It Fl H 81If the 82.Fl R 83option is specified, symbolic links on the command line are followed. 84(Symbolic links encountered in the tree traversal are not followed.) 85.It Fl L 86If the 87.Fl R 88option is specified, all symbolic links are followed. 89.It Fl P 90If the 91.Fl R 92option is specified, no symbolic links are followed. 93.It Fl R 94If 95.Ar source_file 96designates a directory, 97.Nm cp 98copies the directory and the entire subtree connected at that point. 99This option also causes symbolic links to be copied, rather than 100indirected through, and for 101.Nm cp 102to create special files rather than copying them as normal files. 103Created directories have the same mode as the corresponding source 104directory, unmodified by the process' umask. 105.It Fl f 106For each existing destination pathname, remove it and 107create a new file, without prompting for confirmation 108regardless of its permissions. 109(The 110.Fl f 111option overrides any previous 112.Fl i 113options.) 114.It Fl i 115Causes 116.Nm cp 117to write a prompt to the standard error output before copying a file 118that would overwrite an existing file. 119If the response from the standard input begins with the character 120.Sq Li y 121or 122.Sq Li Y , 123the file copy is attempted. 124(The 125.Fl i 126option overrides any previous 127.Fl f 128options.) 129.It Fl p 130Causes 131.Nm cp 132to preserve in the copy as many of the modification time, access time, 133file flags, file mode, user ID, and group ID as allowed by permissions. 134.Pp 135If the user ID and group ID cannot be preserved, no error message 136is displayed and the exit value is not altered. 137.Pp 138If the source file has its set user ID bit on and the user ID cannot 139be preserved, the set user ID bit is not preserved 140in the copy's permissions. 141If the source file has its set group ID bit on and the group ID cannot 142be preserved, the set group ID bit is not preserved 143in the copy's permissions. 144If the source file has both its set user ID and set group ID bits on, 145and either the user ID or group ID cannot be preserved, neither 146the set user ID or set group ID bits are preserved in the copy's 147permissions. 148.El 149.Pp 150For each destination file that already exists, its contents are 151overwritten if permissions allow, but its mode, user ID, and group 152ID are unchanged. 153.Pp 154In the second synopsis form, 155.Ar target_directory 156must exist unless there is only one named 157.Ar source_file 158which is a directory and the 159.Fl R 160flag is specified. 161.Pp 162If the destination file does not exist, the mode of the source file is 163used as modified by the file mode creation mask 164.Pf ( Ic umask , 165see 166.Xr csh 1 ) . 167If the source file has its set user ID bit on, that bit is removed 168unless both the source file and the destination file are owned by the 169same user. 170If the source file has its set group ID bit on, that bit is removed 171unless both the source file and the destination file are in the same 172group and the user is a member of that group. 173If both the set user ID and set group ID bits are set, all of the above 174conditions must be fulfilled or both bits are removed. 175.Pp 176Appropriate permissions are required for file creation or overwriting. 177.Pp 178Symbolic links are always followed unless the 179.Fl R 180flag is set, in which case symbolic links are not followed, by default. 181The 182.Fl H 183or 184.Fl L 185flags (in conjunction with the 186.Fl R 187flag) cause symbolic links to be followed as described above. 188The 189.Fl H , 190.Fl L 191and 192.Fl P 193options are ignored unless the 194.Fl R 195option is specified. 196In addition, these options override each other and the 197command's actions are determined by the last one specified. 198.Pp 199.Nm Cp 200exits 0 on success, >0 if an error occurred. 201.Sh COMPATIBILITY 202Historic versions of the 203.Nm cp 204utility had a 205.Fl r 206option. 207This implementation supports that option, however, its use is strongly 208discouraged, as it does not correctly copy special files, symbolic links 209or fifo's. 210.Sh SEE ALSO 211.Xr mv 1 , 212.Xr rcp 1 , 213.Xr umask 2 , 214.Xr fts 3 , 215.Xr symlink 7 216.Sh STANDARDS 217The 218.Nm cp 219command is expected to be 220.St -p1003.2 221compatible. 222.Sh HISTORY 223A 224.Nm 225command appeared in 226.At v1 . 227