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This page displays the COHERENT manpage for cp [Copy a file].
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cp -- Command Copy a file cp [ -d ] oldname newname cp [ -d ] file1 ... fileN directory cp copies files. In its first form, cp copies the contents of oldname to newname, which it creates if necessary. If newname is a directory, cp copies oldname to a file of the same name in directory newfile. In its second form, cp copies each file, from file1 through fileN, into directory. With the -d option, cp preserves the date (modification time) of the source file or files on the target file or files. By default, target files get the current time. A file cannot be copied to itself. See Also commands, cpdir, ksh, mv, sh, wildcards Notes If you use cp to copy a file into another existing file, the newly copied file takes on the permissions of the file into which the text was copied. For example, consider the files foo and bar, whose permissions are as follows: -rw-r--r-- 1 fred user 40 Tue Apr 14 18:19 bar -rw-r----- 1 fred user 1816 Tue Apr 14 20:53 foo If you use cp to copy foo into bar, then typing ls -l shows the following: -rw-r--r-- 1 fred user 1816 Tue Apr 14 21:37 bar -rw-r----- 1 fred user 1816 Tue Apr 14 20:53 foo bar now has exactly the same contents as foo but retains its old set of permissions.