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.\" $FreeBSD$ 37.\" 38.Dd July 23, 2002 39.Dt CP 1 40.Os 41.Sh NAME 42.Nm cp 43.Nd copy files 44.Sh SYNOPSIS 45.Nm 46.Oo 47.Fl R 48.Op Fl H | Fl L | Fl P 49.Oc 50.Op Fl f | i | n 51.Op Fl pv 52.Ar source_file target_file 53.Nm 54.Oo 55.Fl R 56.Op Fl H | Fl L | Fl P 57.Oc 58.Op Fl f | i | n 59.Op Fl pv 60.Ar source_file ... target_directory 61.Sh DESCRIPTION 62In the first synopsis form, the 63.Nm 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 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. 93This is the default. 94.It Fl R 95If 96.Ar source_file 97designates a directory, 98.Nm 99copies the directory and the entire subtree connected at that point. 100This option also causes symbolic links to be copied, rather than 101indirected through, and for 102.Nm 103to create special files rather than copying them as normal files. 104Created directories have the same mode as the corresponding source 105directory, unmodified by the process' umask. 106.Pp 107Note that 108.Nm 109copies hard linked files as separate files. 110If you need to preserve hard links, consider using 111.Xr tar 1 , 112.Xr cpio 1 , 113or 114.Xr pax 1 115instead. 116.It Fl f 117For each existing destination pathname, remove it and 118create a new file, without prompting for confirmation 119regardless of its permissions. 120(The 121.Fl f 122option overrides any previous 123.Fl i 124or 125.Fl n 126options.) 127.It Fl i 128Cause 129.Nm 130to write a prompt to the standard error output before copying a file 131that would overwrite an existing file. 132If the response from the standard input begins with the character 133.Sq Li y 134or 135.Sq Li Y , 136the file copy is attempted. 137(The 138.Fl i 139option overrides any previous 140.Fl f 141or 142.Fl n 143options.) 144.It Fl n 145Do not overwrite an existing file. 146(The 147.Fl n 148option overrides any previous 149.Fl f 150or 151.Fl i 152options.) 153.It Fl p 154Cause 155.Nm 156to preserve the following attributes of each source 157file in the copy: modification time, access time, 158file flags, file mode, user ID, and group ID, as allowed by permissions. 159.Pp 160If the user ID and group ID cannot be preserved, no error message 161is displayed and the exit value is not altered. 162.Pp 163If the source file has its set-user-ID bit on and the user ID cannot 164be preserved, the set-user-ID bit is not preserved 165in the copy's permissions. 166If the source file has its set-group-ID bit on and the group ID cannot 167be preserved, the set-group-ID bit is not preserved 168in the copy's permissions. 169If the source file has both its set-user-ID and set-group-ID bits on, 170and either the user ID or group ID cannot be preserved, neither 171the set-user-ID nor set-group-ID bits are preserved in the copy's 172permissions. 173.It Fl v 174Cause 175.Nm 176to be verbose, showing files as they are copied. 177.El 178.Pp 179For each destination file that already exists, its contents are 180overwritten if permissions allow. Its mode, user ID, and group 181ID are unchanged unless the 182.Fl p 183option was specified. 184.Pp 185In the second synopsis form, 186.Ar target_directory 187must exist unless there is only one named 188.Ar source_file 189which is a directory and the 190.Fl R 191flag is specified. 192.Pp 193If the destination file does not exist, the mode of the source file is 194used as modified by the file mode creation mask 195.Pf ( Ic umask , 196see 197.Xr csh 1 ) . 198If the source file has its set-user-ID bit on, that bit is removed 199unless both the source file and the destination file are owned by the 200same user. 201If the source file has its set-group-ID bit on, that bit is removed 202unless both the source file and the destination file are in the same 203group and the user is a member of that group. 204If both the set-user-ID and set-group-ID bits are set, all of the above 205conditions must be fulfilled or both bits are removed. 206.Pp 207Appropriate permissions are required for file creation or overwriting. 208.Pp 209Symbolic links are always followed unless the 210.Fl R 211flag is set, in which case symbolic links are not followed, by default. 212The 213.Fl H 214or 215.Fl L 216flags (in conjunction with the 217.Fl R 218flag) cause symbolic links to be followed as described above. 219The 220.Fl H , 221.Fl L 222and 223.Fl P 224options are ignored unless the 225.Fl R 226option is specified. 227In addition, these options override each other and the 228command's actions are determined by the last one specified. 229.Pp 230If 231.Nm 232receives a 233.Dv SIGINFO 234(see the 235.Cm status 236argument for 237.Xr stty 1 ) 238signal, the current input and output file and the percentage complete 239will be written to the standard output. 240.Sh DIAGNOSTICS 241.Ex -std 242.Sh COMPATIBILITY 243Historic versions of the 244.Nm 245utility had a 246.Fl r 247option. 248This implementation supports that option, however, its use is strongly 249discouraged, as it does not correctly copy special files, symbolic links 250or fifo's. 251.Pp 252The 253.Fl v 254and 255.Fl n 256options are non-standard and their use in scripts is not recommended. 257.Sh SEE ALSO 258.Xr mv 1 , 259.Xr rcp 1 , 260.Xr umask 2 , 261.Xr fts 3 , 262.Xr symlink 7 263.Sh STANDARDS 264The 265.Nm 266command is expected to be 267.St -p1003.2 268compatible. 269.Sh HISTORY 270A 271.Nm 272command appeared in 273.At v1 . 274