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.\" 4. 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.\" @(#)cp.1 8.3 (Berkeley) 4/18/94 33.\" $FreeBSD$ 34.\" 35.Dd January 17, 2010 36.Dt CP 1 37.Os 38.Sh NAME 39.Nm cp 40.Nd copy files 41.Sh SYNOPSIS 42.Nm 43.Oo 44.Fl R 45.Op Fl H | Fl L | Fl P 46.Oc 47.Op Fl f | i | n 48.Op Fl alpvx 49.Ar source_file target_file 50.Nm 51.Oo 52.Fl R 53.Op Fl H | Fl L | Fl P 54.Oc 55.Op Fl f | i | n 56.Op Fl alpvx 57.Ar source_file ... target_directory 58.Sh DESCRIPTION 59In the first synopsis form, the 60.Nm 61utility copies the contents of the 62.Ar source_file 63to the 64.Ar target_file . 65In the second synopsis form, 66the contents of each named 67.Ar source_file 68is copied to the destination 69.Ar target_directory . 70The names of the files themselves are not changed. 71If 72.Nm 73detects an attempt to copy a file to itself, the copy will fail. 74.Pp 75The following options are available: 76.Bl -tag -width flag 77.It Fl H 78If the 79.Fl R 80option is specified, symbolic links on the command line are followed. 81(Symbolic links encountered in the tree traversal are not followed.) 82.It Fl L 83If the 84.Fl R 85option is specified, all symbolic links are followed. 86.It Fl P 87If the 88.Fl R 89option is specified, no symbolic links are followed. 90This is the default. 91.It Fl R 92If 93.Ar source_file 94designates a directory, 95.Nm 96copies the directory and the entire subtree connected at that point. 97If the 98.Ar source_file 99ends in a 100.Pa / , 101the contents of the directory are copied rather than the 102directory itself. 103This option also causes symbolic links to be copied, rather than 104indirected through, and for 105.Nm 106to create special files rather than copying them as normal files. 107Created directories have the same mode as the corresponding source 108directory, unmodified by the process' umask. 109.Pp 110Note that 111.Nm 112copies hard linked files as separate files. 113If you need to preserve hard links, consider using 114.Xr tar 1 , 115.Xr cpio 1 , 116or 117.Xr pax 1 118instead. 119.It Fl a 120Archive mode. 121Same as 122.Fl RpP . 123.It Fl f 124For each existing destination pathname, remove it and 125create a new file, without prompting for confirmation 126regardless of its permissions. 127(The 128.Fl f 129option overrides any previous 130.Fl i 131or 132.Fl n 133options.) 134.It Fl i 135Cause 136.Nm 137to write a prompt to the standard error output before copying a file 138that would overwrite an existing file. 139If the response from the standard input begins with the character 140.Sq Li y 141or 142.Sq Li Y , 143the file copy is attempted. 144(The 145.Fl i 146option overrides any previous 147.Fl f 148or 149.Fl n 150options.) 151.It Fl l 152Create hard links to regular files in a hierarchy instead of copying. 153.It Fl n 154Do not overwrite an existing file. 155(The 156.Fl n 157option overrides any previous 158.Fl f 159or 160.Fl i 161options.) 162.It Fl p 163Cause 164.Nm 165to preserve the following attributes of each source 166file in the copy: modification time, access time, 167file flags, file mode, user ID, and group ID, as allowed by permissions. 168.Pp 169If the user ID and group ID cannot be preserved, no error message 170is displayed and the exit value is not altered. 171.Pp 172If the source file has its set-user-ID bit on and the user ID cannot 173be preserved, the set-user-ID bit is not preserved 174in the copy's permissions. 175If the source file has its set-group-ID bit on and the group ID cannot 176be preserved, the set-group-ID bit is not preserved 177in the copy's permissions. 178If the source file has both its set-user-ID and set-group-ID bits on, 179and either the user ID or group ID cannot be preserved, neither 180the set-user-ID nor set-group-ID bits are preserved in the copy's 181permissions. 182.It Fl v 183Cause 184.Nm 185to be verbose, showing files as they are copied. 186.It Fl x 187File system mount points are not traversed. 188.El 189.Pp 190For each destination file that already exists, its contents are 191overwritten if permissions allow. 192Its mode, user ID, and group 193ID are unchanged unless the 194.Fl p 195option was specified. 196.Pp 197In the second synopsis form, 198.Ar target_directory 199must exist unless there is only one named 200.Ar source_file 201which is a directory and the 202.Fl R 203flag is specified. 204.Pp 205If the destination file does not exist, the mode of the source file is 206used as modified by the file mode creation mask 207.Pf ( Ic umask , 208see 209.Xr csh 1 ) . 210If the source file has its set-user-ID bit on, that bit is removed 211unless both the source file and the destination file are owned by the 212same user. 213If the source file has its set-group-ID bit on, that bit is removed 214unless both the source file and the destination file are in the same 215group and the user is a member of that group. 216If both the set-user-ID and set-group-ID bits are set, all of the above 217conditions must be fulfilled or both bits are removed. 218.Pp 219Appropriate permissions are required for file creation or overwriting. 220.Pp 221Symbolic links are always followed unless the 222.Fl R 223flag is set, in which case symbolic links are not followed, by default. 224The 225.Fl H 226or 227.Fl L 228flags (in conjunction with the 229.Fl R 230flag) cause symbolic links to be followed as described above. 231The 232.Fl H , 233.Fl L 234and 235.Fl P 236options are ignored unless the 237.Fl R 238option is specified. 239In addition, these options override each other and the 240command's actions are determined by the last one specified. 241.Pp 242If 243.Nm 244receives a 245.Dv SIGINFO 246(see the 247.Cm status 248argument for 249.Xr stty 1 ) 250signal, the current input and output file and the percentage complete 251will be written to the standard output. 252.Sh EXIT STATUS 253.Ex -std 254.Sh COMPATIBILITY 255Historic versions of the 256.Nm 257utility had a 258.Fl r 259option. 260This implementation supports that option, however, its behavior 261is different from historical 262.Fx 263behavior. 264Use of this option 265is strongly discouraged as the behavior is 266implementation-dependent. 267In 268.Fx , 269.Fl r 270is a synonym for 271.Fl RL 272and works the same unless modified by other flags. 273Historical implementations 274of 275.Fl r 276differ as they copy special files as normal 277files while recreating a hierarchy. 278.Pp 279The 280.Fl v 281and 282.Fl n 283options are non-standard and their use in scripts is not recommended. 284.Sh SEE ALSO 285.Xr mv 1 , 286.Xr rcp 1 , 287.Xr umask 2 , 288.Xr fts 3 , 289.Xr symlink 7 290.Sh STANDARDS 291The 292.Nm 293command is expected to be 294.St -p1003.2 295compatible. 296.Sh HISTORY 297A 298.Nm 299command appeared in 300.At v1 . 301