Kerberized version.

[unix-history] / usr / src / bin / cp / cp.1

.\" Copyright (c) 1989 The Regents of the University of California.
.\" All rights reserved.
.\"
.\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms are permitted
.\" provided that the above copyright notice and this paragraph are
.\" duplicated in all such forms and that any documentation,
.\" advertising materials, and other materials related to such
.\" distribution and use acknowledge that the software was developed
.\" by the University of California, Berkeley.  The name of the
.\" University may not be used to endorse or promote products derived
.\" from this software without specific prior written permission.
.\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED ``AS IS'' AND WITHOUT ANY EXPRESS OR
.\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, THE IMPLIED
.\" WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
.\"
.\"	@(#)cp.1	6.5 (Berkeley) %G%
.\"
.TH CP 1 ""
.UC 4
.SH NAME
cp - copy files
.SH SYNOPSIS
\fBcp [ \fI-fhip\fB ] source_file target_file
.sp
\fBcp [ \fI-fhipr\fB ] source_file ... target_directory
.ft R
.SH DESCRIPTION
The
.I cp
utility copies
.I source_file
to
.I target_file
or, in the second form, one or more
.IR source_file s
are copied into the target
.IR target_directory ,
retaining their original filenames.
If
.I cp
detects an attempt to copy a file to itself, the copy will fail.
.PP
For each destination file that already exists, its contents are
overwritten if permissions allow, but its mode, user ID, and group
ID are unchanged.
Otherwise, the mode of the
.I source_file
is used as modified by the file mode creation mask.
Appropriate permissions are required for file creation or overwriting.
.PP
The following options are available:
.TP
.I -h
Forces
.I cp
to follow symbolic links.
Provided for the
.I -r
option which does not follow symbolic links by default.
.TP
.I -f
Force existing destination pathnames to be truncated before copying,
without prompting for confirmation.
(The
.I -i
option is ignored if the
.I -f
option is specified.)
.TP
.I -i
Causes
.I cp
to write a prompt to standard error before copying a file that would
overwrite an existing file.
If the response from the standard input begins with the character ``y'',
the file is copied if permissions allow the copy.
.TP
.I -p
Causes
.I cp
to preserve in the copy as many of the modification time, access time,
.\" and file mode as allowed by permissions.
file mode, user ID, and group ID as allowed by permissions.
.TP
.I -r
If
.I source_file
designates a directory,
.I cp
copies the directory and the entire subtree connected at that point.
This option also causes symbolic links to be copied, rather than
indirected through, and for
.I cp
to create special files rather than copying them as normal files.
Created directories have the same mode as the corresponding source
directory, unmodified by the process' file mode creation mask.
.PP
Symbolic links are followed unless the
.I -r
option is specified, in which case the link itself is copied.
.PP
.I Cp
exits 0 on success, >0 if an error occurred.
.SH "SEE ALSO"
mv(1), rcp(1), umask(2)