4.2.8. cp — copy files

With the cp command, you can copy files or directories from one place (source) to another (destination).

Copying one file

To copy one file, use the following format:

cp source_file destination

Where source_file is the file you would like to copy and destination can either be a file name or a directory.

If destination is a file name

The copied file will have that file name.

For example:

cp /usr/share/dict/words /home/user/Documents/dictionary.txt

This will copy the words file from /usr/share/dict/ to /home/user/Documents/ and save it as dictionary.txt.

If destination is a directory

The file will be copied into that directory with the same file name.

For example:

cp /usr/share/dict/words /home/user/Documents

This will copy the words file from /usr/share/dict/ to /home/user/Documents/ with the same file name.

Copying multiple files

To copy multiple files, use the following format:

cp source_file1 source_file2 destination

Where source_file1 and source_file2 are the files you would like to copy. You can have any number of source files. Here, destination is the directory where you would like to copy source files into.

For example:

cp /usr/share/dict/words /usr/share/dict/spanish /home/user/Documents

This will copy the words and spanish dictionary files from /usr/share/dict/ into /home/user/Documents.

Copying directories

You can copy entire directories using the -r (recursive) option.

For example:

cp -r /usr/share/dict /home/user/Documents

This will copy the /usr/share/dict directory and its contents to the Documents directory.