Unix - copy contents of one directory to another [closed]

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Folder1/
    -fileA.txt
    -fileB.txt
    -fileC.txt

> mkdir Folder2/

> [copy command]

And now Folder2/ looks like:

Folder2/
    -fileA.txt
    -fileB.txt
    -fileC.txt

How to make this happen? I have tried cp -r Folder1/ Folder2/ but I ended up with:

Folder2/
    Folder1/
        -fileA.txt
        -fileB.txt
        -fileC.txt

Which is close but not exactly what I wanted.

Thanks!

Geoff · Accepted Answer · 2012-10-22 21:07:15Z

129

Try this:

cp Folder1/* Folder2/

answered Oct 22, 2012 at 21:07

Geoff

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7 Comments

Fabrizio Regini Over a year ago

but this won't copy hidden files, right?

Geoff Over a year ago

Correct. cp -R will, but that'll recursively copy, so you may or may not want to use that. You could do cp Folder1/.* Folder2/ to copy only the hidden files.

Nathan Osman Over a year ago

Note that this will fail if you are using "sudo" or an equivalent and the directory contains a lot of files. I get sudo: unable to execute /bin/cp: Argument list too long

sivi Over a year ago

note that SCP has a slightly different syntax, see here: stackoverflow.com/a/26346339/1984636

xpusostomos Over a year ago

Don't do this. Do "cp -rT src dest" on Linux, or "cp -R src/ dest" on BSD.

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Koen. · Accepted Answer · 2012-10-22 21:07:11Z

50

Quite simple, with a * wildcard.

cp -r Folder1/* Folder2/

But according to your example recursion is not needed so the following will suffice:

cp Folder1/* Folder2/

EDIT:

Or skip the mkdir Folder2 part and just run:

cp -r Folder1 Folder2

answered Oct 22, 2012 at 21:07

Koen.

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2 Comments

Pooja Over a year ago

If ls | sort -k1.5 | head -8 > folder1 then how to do that ?

xpusostomos Over a year ago

You just lost all your hidden files. Don't do this. Do "cp -rT src dest" on Linux, or "cp -R src/ dest" on BSD.

Brian White · Accepted Answer · 2015-04-21 12:12:23Z

23

To make an exact copy, permissions, ownership, and all use "-a" with "cp". "-r" will copy the contents of the files but not necessarily keep other things the same.

cp -av Source/* Dest/

(make sure Dest/ exists first)

If you want to repeatedly update from one to the other or make sure you also copy all dotfiles, rsync is a great help:

rsync -av --delete Source/ Dest/

This is also "recoverable" in that you can restart it if you abort it while copying. I like "-v" because it lets you watch what is going on but you can omit it.

edited Apr 21, 2015 at 12:12

answered Oct 22, 2012 at 21:23

Brian White

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5 Comments

HattrickNZ Over a year ago

what is the -v for?

Brian White Over a year ago

verbose, just to watch what is going on.

Eyal Levin Over a year ago

If you have a lot of files the -v option can take some time. If you don't need the output use -a only.

Brian White Over a year ago

You'd have to be running over pretty slow network connection for the copy to be slowed by text output. And even then, it would likely just be the return of the command prompt, not the copy itself.

xpusostomos Over a year ago

You lost your hidden files. Do "cp -rT src dest" on Linux, or "cp -R src/ dest" on BSD.

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