I want to copy a directory from one place to another via the command line

Question

I want to copy a directory from one place to another folder.

sudo cp is the command, but after that what should I type? The destination or source first?

score 208 · Answer 1 · answered Nov 17 '11 at 04:57

208

The -a flag is probably what you are looking for:

cp -a /path/from /path/to

The -a flag turns on recursive behaviour (which can also be done with the -R flag), and will also attempt to preserve metadata such as file ownership, permissions, timestamps, links, etc.

You should only need to use sudo if you are copying to a location not owned by the current user, if the current user doesn't have read permissions for the files being copied, or if you want to preserve ownership on files not owned by the current user.

answered Nov 17 '11 at 04:57

James Henstridge

41,136

4

in addition, as a rule of thumb, its always like that [command] [source] [destination]. This applies to mv, cp, ren. – Vineet Menon Nov 17 '11 at 05:19
1

@VineetMenon You probably mean mv, not ren. – jcollado Nov 17 '11 at 07:36
@jcollado:i have already added mv!! – Vineet Menon Nov 17 '11 at 08:49
@VineetMenon Yes, you're right, I didn't see that mv was already in the list. Anyway, my point was that, as far as I know, there isn't any ren command (unless you've got an alias or something set). – jcollado Nov 17 '11 at 09:28
1

@jcollado:haha...that was my alias for rename... :D – Vineet Menon Nov 17 '11 at 09:29
see due to my inability to recognize that this copies the contents of a folder and not the actual folder itself, I had to completely nuke 2 of my Node.js projects :D – Michael Ilie Apr 30 '18 at 23:12

score 28 · Answer 2 · answered Feb 12 '13 at 16:54

28

If you want to copy directory please use below command:

sudo cp -R Source_Folder Destination_Folder

This command can also be used to copy files, by just removing the "-R" which is used to copy the recursive structure of internal folders (if there are any in the Source_Folder path that we mentioned.)

One more example:

sudo cp -R /var/www/* /home/test_user/

Please feel free to leave a comment in case of any issue.

answered Feb 12 '13 at 16:54

Hrish

2,343

Why does user1@server: sudo cp -r /home/user1/foo/* /home/user2/foo/ return permission denied when I added it to sudoers file? I am so confused.. visudo: user1 ALL=NOPASSWD: /bin/cp -r /home/user1/foo/* /home/user2/foo/? – Ismoh Jul 19 '23 at 22:50

score 8 · Answer 3 · edited Nov 06 '19 at 06:34

8

For copy folder via terminal, you can use:

cp -a /source/. /dest/

The -a option is an improved recursive option. It preserves all file attributes and also preserves symlinks.

The . at the end of the source path is a specific cp syntax that allows copying all files and folders, including hidden ones.

An alternative is rsync:

rsync -r source/ destination

edited Nov 06 '19 at 06:34

Eliah Kagan

117,780

answered Jul 11 '17 at 11:02

Shail

181

score 2 · Answer 4 · edited Jun 18 '16 at 03:55

2

I think the better way is to use gksu nautilus command and you can copy whatever you want with common GUI as usual.

edited Jun 18 '16 at 03:55

user.dz

48,105

answered Jun 18 '16 at 02:46

Af Vtr

21

2

That assumes you are using a GUI and not CLI. – Phill Healey Jul 08 '16 at 14:31

I want to copy a directory from one place to another via the command line

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