Ubuntu Unleashed 2014 Edition: Covering 13.10 and 14.04,Ninth Edition

Copying Files Using cp

To copy files, we could use the cp command. The general format of the command when used for simple copying is as follows:

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matthew@seymour:~$ cp -a source_directory target_directory

The -a argument is the same as giving -dpR, which would be

-d—Preserves symbolic links (by not dereferencing them) and copies the files that they point to instead of copying the links.

-p—Preserves all file attributes if possible. (File ownership might interfere.)

-R—Copies directories recursively.

The cp command ...