Must copy and rename file

Question

Hi all i was asked to find the terminal command that will make a copy of a file lets call it program3.cpp and give to the copy the name homework6.cpp. After that you will have two files with different names, but identical contents.

I know how to copy the file but i cant figure out how to create a second identical file with a different name. All help is appreciated. Thanks!

I love the irony of renaming program to homework on SE – Jesse Reza Khorasanee Oct 30 '19 at 03:51 — Jesse Reza Khorasanee, Oct 30 '19 at 03:51

score 91 · Answer 1 · answered May 03 '14 at 19:03

91

Copy and rename in the same time (also change filename, not only path):

cp program3.cpp homework6.cpp

Rename only:

mv program3.cpp homework6.cpp

answered May 03 '14 at 19:03

Cornelius

9,483
4
40
62

23

Ah... I hate cp only supports "copy and rename" in the same dir; when you copy to another location, the destination can only be a dir, not the target file name.. and you must cp first and then mv. – WesternGun Jun 16 '19 at 09:04
2

@WesternGun That's not true. cp /opt/MyFile /tmp/MyNewNamedFile What you CAN'T do is to copy a file from another location to your current location and rename it at the same time here (.) . (As far as I know) – DimiDak Jun 14 '21 at 20:30
1

@DimiDak sure you can: cp ~/make/makefiles/rails_makefile ./Makefile renames the file rails_makefile to Makefile in the current directory :) (well, at least on macOS it does, maybe linux is different?) – stevec Jan 30 '22 at 00:48
1

@stevec Yeap, that worked :) – DimiDak Jan 30 '22 at 09:30

score 2 · Answer 2 · edited Mar 17 '21 at 02:35

2

If you want to have the files permanently linked use the ln command instead of cp

ln program3.cpp homework6.cpp

This puts a file descriptor (hard link) under the name homework6.cpp to the same file location as program3.cpp

edited Mar 17 '21 at 02:35

Zanna

70,465

answered May 03 '14 at 19:10

N8tron

724

Must copy and rename file

2 Answers2