[PLUG] Proper way to copy directories

Vram lamsokvr at xprt.net
Thu Dec 23 19:45:43 UTC 2004


On Thu, 2004-12-23 at 11:32 -0800, Jason Van Cleve wrote:
> Quoth Richard C. Steffens, on Wed, 22 Dec 2004 10:32:05 -0800:
> 
> > cp -r /home /home2
> > 
> > This resulted in a copy of home in /home2. In other words, /home2 had
> 
> With all us experts on file copy techniques, you might feel silly for
> trying to use a tool so primitive as cp.  But after all, it's probably
> all you need.
> 
> I wanted to point out that you probably had an existing /home2 directory
> when you ran the cp command above:  that would explain why /home ended
> up within /home2.  When copying one directory path to another, using cp,
> what happens depends on whether the destination directory already
> exists.  If it does NOT exist, then cp will create it as a direct copy
> of the source directory.
> 
> Thus, if you remove /home2 completely and then execute
> 
> cp -pR /home /home2
> 
> you should get what you bargained for.  Works for a one-off, but if
> you're doing a backup and plan to repeat it, you should use a more
> suitable tool.
> 
> --Jason



Jason

Does this copy your DOT files??

HTH

Vram




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