cp
Options
--target-directory=<target-directory>,-t <target-directory>-
cp-help-target-directory
--no-target-directory,-T-
cp-help-no-target-directory
--interactive,-i-
cp-help-interactive
--link,-l-
cp-help-link
--no-clobber,-n-
cp-help-no-clobber
--recursive,-R,-r-
cp-help-recursive
--strip-trailing-slashes-
cp-help-strip-trailing-slashes
--debug-
cp-help-debug
--verbose,-v-
cp-help-verbose
--symbolic-link,-s-
cp-help-symbolic-link
--force,-f-
cp-help-force
--remove-destination-
cp-help-remove-destination
--backup=<CONTROL>-
make a backup of each existing destination file
-b-
like --backup but does not accept an argument
--suffix=<SUFFIX>,-S <SUFFIX>-
override the usual backup suffix
--update-
move only when the SOURCE file is newer than the destination file or when the destination file is missing
-u-
like --update but does not accept an argument
--reflink=<WHEN>-
cp-help-reflink
--attributes-only-
cp-help-attributes-only
--preserve=<ATTR_LIST>-
cp-help-preserve
--preserve-default-attributes,-p-
cp-help-preserve-default
--no-preserve=<ATTR_LIST>-
cp-help-no-preserve
--parents-
cp-help-parents
--no-dereference,-P-
cp-help-no-dereference
--dereference,-L-
cp-help-dereference
-H-
cp-help-cli-symbolic-links
--archive,-a-
cp-help-archive
-d-
cp-help-no-dereference-preserve-links
--one-file-system,-x-
cp-help-one-file-system
--sparse=<WHEN>-
cp-help-sparse
-Z-
cp-help-selinux
--context=<CTX>-
cp-help-context
--progress,-g-
cp-help-progress
--copy-contents-
cp-help-copy-contents
Examples
Copy a file to another location:
cp {{path/to/source_file.ext}} {{path/to/target_file.ext}}
Copy a file into another directory, keeping the filename:
cp {{path/to/source_file.ext}} {{path/to/target_parent_directory}}
Recursively copy a directory's contents to another location (if the destination exists, the directory is copied inside it):
cp {{[-r|--recursive]}} {{path/to/source_directory}} {{path/to/target_directory}}
Copy a directory recursively, in verbose mode (shows files as they are copied):
cp {{[-vr|--verbose --recursive]}} {{path/to/source_directory}} {{path/to/target_directory}}
Copy multiple files at once to a directory:
cp {{[-t|--target-directory]}} {{path/to/destination_directory}} {{path/to/file1 path/to/file2 ...}}
Copy all files with a specific extension to another location, in interactive mode (prompts user before overwriting):
cp {{[-i|--interactive]}} {{*.ext}} {{path/to/target_directory}}
Follow symbolic links before copying:
cp {{[-L|--dereference]}} {{link}} {{path/to/target_directory}}
Use the full path of source files, creating any missing intermediate directories when copying:
cp --parents {{source/path/to/file}} {{path/to/target_file}}
The examples are provided by the tldr-pages project under the CC BY 4.0 License.
Please note that, as uutils is a work in progress, some examples might fail.