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 October 27, 2006 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 lpv 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 lpv 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 f 120For each existing destination pathname, remove it and 121create a new file, without prompting for confirmation 122regardless of its permissions. 123(The 124.Fl f 125option overrides any previous 126.Fl i 127or 128.Fl n 129options.) 130.It Fl i 131Cause 132.Nm 133to write a prompt to the standard error output before copying a file 134that would overwrite an existing file. 135If the response from the standard input begins with the character 136.Sq Li y 137or 138.Sq Li Y , 139the file copy is attempted. 140(The 141.Fl i 142option overrides any previous 143.Fl f 144or 145.Fl n 146options.) 147.It Fl l 148Create hard links to regular files in a hierarchy instead of copying. 149.It Fl n 150Do not overwrite an existing file. 151(The 152.Fl n 153option overrides any previous 154.Fl f 155or 156.Fl i 157options.) 158.It Fl p 159Cause 160.Nm 161to preserve the following attributes of each source 162file in the copy: modification time, access time, 163file flags, file mode, user ID, and group ID, as allowed by permissions. 164.Pp 165If the user ID and group ID cannot be preserved, no error message 166is displayed and the exit value is not altered. 167.Pp 168If the source file has its set-user-ID bit on and the user ID cannot 169be preserved, the set-user-ID bit is not preserved 170in the copy's permissions. 171If the source file has its set-group-ID bit on and the group ID cannot 172be preserved, the set-group-ID bit is not preserved 173in the copy's permissions. 174If the source file has both its set-user-ID and set-group-ID bits on, 175and either the user ID or group ID cannot be preserved, neither 176the set-user-ID nor set-group-ID bits are preserved in the copy's 177permissions. 178.It Fl v 179Cause 180.Nm 181to be verbose, showing files as they are copied. 182.El 183.Pp 184For each destination file that already exists, its contents are 185overwritten if permissions allow. 186Its mode, user ID, and group 187ID are unchanged unless the 188.Fl p 189option was specified. 190.Pp 191In the second synopsis form, 192.Ar target_directory 193must exist unless there is only one named 194.Ar source_file 195which is a directory and the 196.Fl R 197flag is specified. 198.Pp 199If the destination file does not exist, the mode of the source file is 200used as modified by the file mode creation mask 201.Pf ( Ic umask , 202see 203.Xr csh 1 ) . 204If the source file has its set-user-ID bit on, that bit is removed 205unless both the source file and the destination file are owned by the 206same user. 207If the source file has its set-group-ID bit on, that bit is removed 208unless both the source file and the destination file are in the same 209group and the user is a member of that group. 210If both the set-user-ID and set-group-ID bits are set, all of the above 211conditions must be fulfilled or both bits are removed. 212.Pp 213Appropriate permissions are required for file creation or overwriting. 214.Pp 215Symbolic links are always followed unless the 216.Fl R 217flag is set, in which case symbolic links are not followed, by default. 218The 219.Fl H 220or 221.Fl L 222flags (in conjunction with the 223.Fl R 224flag) cause symbolic links to be followed as described above. 225The 226.Fl H , 227.Fl L 228and 229.Fl P 230options are ignored unless the 231.Fl R 232option is specified. 233In addition, these options override each other and the 234command's actions are determined by the last one specified. 235.Pp 236If 237.Nm 238receives a 239.Dv SIGINFO 240(see the 241.Cm status 242argument for 243.Xr stty 1 ) 244signal, the current input and output file and the percentage complete 245will be written to the standard output. 246.Sh EXIT STATUS 247.Ex -std 248.Sh COMPATIBILITY 249Historic versions of the 250.Nm 251utility had a 252.Fl r 253option. 254This implementation supports that option, however, its behavior 255is different from historical 256.Fx 257behavior. 258Use of this option 259is strongly discouraged as the behavior is 260implementation-dependent. 261In 262.Fx , 263.Fl r 264is a synonym for 265.Fl RL 266and works the same unless modified by other flags. 267Historical implementations 268of 269.Fl r 270differ as they copy special files as normal 271files while recreating a hierarchy. 272.Pp 273The 274.Fl v 275and 276.Fl n 277options are non-standard and their use in scripts is not recommended. 278.Sh SEE ALSO 279.Xr mv 1 , 280.Xr rcp 1 , 281.Xr umask 2 , 282.Xr fts 3 , 283.Xr symlink 7 284.Sh STANDARDS 285The 286.Nm 287command is expected to be 288.St -p1003.2 289compatible. 290.Sh HISTORY 291A 292.Nm 293command appeared in 294.At v1 . 295