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: src/bin/cp/cp.1,v 1.33 2005/02/25 00:40:46 trhodes Exp $ 37.\" $DragonFly: src/bin/cp/cp.1,v 1.6 2005/08/01 01:49:16 swildner Exp $ 38.\" 39.Dd February 23, 2005 40.Dt CP 1 41.Os 42.Sh NAME 43.Nm cp 44.Nd copy files 45.Sh SYNOPSIS 46.Nm 47.Oo 48.Fl R 49.Op Fl H | Fl L | Fl P 50.Oc 51.Op Fl f | i | n 52.Op Fl pv 53.Ar source_file target_file 54.Nm 55.Oo 56.Fl R 57.Op Fl H | Fl L | Fl P 58.Oc 59.Op Fl f | i | n 60.Op Fl pv 61.Ar source_file ... target_directory 62.Sh DESCRIPTION 63In the first synopsis form, the 64.Nm 65utility copies the contents of the 66.Ar source_file 67to the 68.Ar target_file . 69In the second synopsis form, 70the contents of each named 71.Ar source_file 72is copied to the destination 73.Ar target_directory . 74The names of the files themselves are not changed. 75If 76.Nm 77detects an attempt to copy a file to itself, the copy will fail. 78.Pp 79The following options are available: 80.Bl -tag -width flag 81.It Fl H 82If the 83.Fl R 84option is specified, symbolic links on the command line are followed. 85(Symbolic links encountered in the tree traversal are not followed.) 86.It Fl L 87If the 88.Fl R 89option is specified, all symbolic links are followed. 90.It Fl P 91If the 92.Fl R 93option is specified, no symbolic links are followed. 94This is the default. 95.It Fl R 96If 97.Ar source_file 98designates a directory, 99.Nm 100copies the directory and the entire subtree connected at that point. 101If the 102.Ar source_file 103ends in a 104.Pa / , 105the contents of the directory are copied rather than the 106directory itself. 107This option also causes symbolic links to be copied, rather than 108indirected through, and for 109.Nm 110to create special files rather than copying them as normal files. 111Created directories have the same mode as the corresponding source 112directory, unmodified by the process' umask. 113.Pp 114Note that 115.Nm 116copies hard linked files as separate files. 117If you need to preserve hard links, consider using 118.Xr tar 1 , 119.Xr cpio 1 , 120or 121.Xr pax 1 122instead. 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 n 152Do not overwrite an existing file. 153(The 154.Fl n 155option overrides any previous 156.Fl f 157or 158.Fl i 159options.) 160.It Fl p 161Cause 162.Nm 163to preserve the following attributes of each source 164file in the copy: modification time, access time, 165file flags, file mode, user ID, and group ID, as allowed by permissions. 166.Pp 167If the user ID and group ID cannot be preserved, no error message 168is displayed and the exit value is not altered. 169.Pp 170If the source file has its set-user-ID bit on and the user ID cannot 171be preserved, the set-user-ID bit is not preserved 172in the copy's permissions. 173If the source file has its set-group-ID bit on and the group ID cannot 174be preserved, the set-group-ID bit is not preserved 175in the copy's permissions. 176If the source file has both its set-user-ID and set-group-ID bits on, 177and either the user ID or group ID cannot be preserved, neither 178the set-user-ID nor set-group-ID bits are preserved in the copy's 179permissions. 180.It Fl v 181Cause 182.Nm 183to be verbose, showing files as they are copied. 184.El 185.Pp 186For each destination file that already exists, its contents are 187overwritten if permissions allow. 188Its mode, user ID, and group 189ID are unchanged unless the 190.Fl p 191option was specified. 192.Pp 193In the second synopsis form, 194.Ar target_directory 195must exist unless there is only one named 196.Ar source_file 197which is a directory and the 198.Fl R 199flag is specified. 200.Pp 201If the destination file does not exist, the mode of the source file is 202used as modified by the file mode creation mask 203.Pf ( Ic umask , 204see 205.Xr csh 1 ) . 206If the source file has its set-user-ID bit on, that bit is removed 207unless both the source file and the destination file are owned by the 208same user. 209If the source file has its set-group-ID bit on, that bit is removed 210unless both the source file and the destination file are in the same 211group and the user is a member of that group. 212If both the set-user-ID and set-group-ID bits are set, all of the above 213conditions must be fulfilled or both bits are removed. 214.Pp 215Appropriate permissions are required for file creation or overwriting. 216.Pp 217Symbolic links are always followed unless the 218.Fl R 219flag is set, in which case symbolic links are not followed, by default. 220The 221.Fl H 222or 223.Fl L 224flags (in conjunction with the 225.Fl R 226flag) cause symbolic links to be followed as described above. 227The 228.Fl H , 229.Fl L 230and 231.Fl P 232options are ignored unless the 233.Fl R 234option is specified. 235In addition, these options override each other and the 236command's actions are determined by the last one specified. 237.Pp 238If 239.Nm 240receives a 241.Dv SIGINFO 242(see the 243.Cm status 244argument for 245.Xr stty 1 ) 246signal, the current input and output file and the percentage complete 247will be written to standard error. 248.Sh DIAGNOSTICS 249.Ex -std 250.Sh COMPATIBILITY 251Historic versions of the 252.Nm 253utility had a 254.Fl r 255option. 256This implementation supports that option, however, its use is strongly 257discouraged, as it does not correctly copy special files, symbolic links 258or fifo's. 259.Pp 260The 261.Fl v 262and 263.Fl n 264options are non-standard and their use in scripts is not recommended. 265.Sh SEE ALSO 266.Xr mv 1 , 267.Xr rcp 1 , 268.Xr umask 2 , 269.Xr fts 3 , 270.Xr symlink 7 271.Sh STANDARDS 272The 273.Nm 274command is expected to be 275.St -p1003.2 276compatible. 277.Sh HISTORY 278A 279.Nm 280command appeared in 281.At v1 . 282