How to Copy Files and Directories in Linux using Terminal?

In this guide, I will show you how to copy files and directories in Linux using the terminal.

Moving, renaming, deleting and copying files and directories are the basic tasks that you need to perform every now and then on your system. Surely you can use the graphical way of copying files (using mouse or keyboard shortcut). However, copying files and directories in Linux using a terminal can help you achieve some complicated tasks very easily.

How to Copy Files in Linux using Terminal?

We will use the “cp” command (short for copy) to copy files in Linux.

Here’s the basic syntax of the “cp” command:

cp <OPTIONS> <SOURCE> <DESTINATION>

Things to Remember:

• The SOURCE can contain one or more files or directories as arguments, and the DESTINATION argument can be a single file or directory.
• If the SOURCE has multiple files or directories as arguments, then the DESTINATION argument must be a directory. In that case, the SOURCE files and directories will be copied to the DESTINATION directory.
• If the SOURCE and DESTINATION arguments are both directories, then the cp command copies the first (SOURCE) directory into the second (DESTINATION) directory.
• To copy files and directories, you must have at least read permissions on the SOURCE file and write permissions on the DESTINATION directory.

Copy files using cp command in Linux

Now, let’s see the “cp” command in action through different examples.

Copy file to the same location with a different name

cp file.txt new_file.txt

The above command will create a copy of “file.txt” on the same location with a different name (new_file.txt). This way you don’t have to rename the file after creating a copy of it.

Copy file to a Directory

cp file.txt data

The above command will copy “file.txt” to a directory called ‘data’ present in the same location.

Copying a file to a directory using absolute pathnames

You have to provide the full path of the source and destination if the source file and destination directory is not present in the same location.

cp /home/rahul/Documents/file.txt /home/rahul/Desktop/file.txt

This command will copy “file.txt” present in the “Documents” directory to the “Desktop” directory of the user.

Copy file to a directory with a different name

cp file.txt data/new_file.txt

This command will copy the “file.txt” to the “data” directory with a different name “new_file.txt”.

Copy Multiple Files

You can insert multiple files as sources in the “cp” command but the destination should be a directory. Just separate the names with a space.

cp file1.txt file2.txt file3.txt data

The above command will copy ‘file1.txt’, ‘file2.txt’ and ‘file3.txt’ to the ‘data’ directory present in the same location.

Prompt for confirmation

There are many options that you can use with the ‘cp’ command. These options provide additional functionalities.

cp -i file.txt data/file.txt

If the ‘file.txt’ already exists in the ‘data’ directory, then using the interactive (-i) option will prompt for confirmation to overwrite the destination file.

Note: If you don’t use the (-i) option in this scenario, then the ‘cp’ command will overwrite the file without asking. In this case, you might lose some important data. To avoid accidentally overwriting, it is recommended to always use the (-i) option while using the ‘cp’ command in Linux.

Copy the file only if it is newer than the destination

cp -u file.txt new_file.txt

The update (-u) option will only overwrite the file if the source file is newer than the destination file. This is useful when you’re taking backups.

Verbose cp command output

cp -v file.txt new_file.txt

The verbose (-v) option will allow you to see the actions taken by the ‘cp’ command.

Copy files using Wildcards

You can use wildcards to copy all the files that follow a particular pattern in their name.

For example, to copy all the files that end with the ‘.png’ extension to the ‘dir1’ directory in the backup directory, run the following command:

cp -v *.png backup/dir1

Copy files from multiple source locations to a single destination directory

cp  data1/file1.txt data2/file2.txt data_backup

The above command will copy ‘file1.txt’ from the ‘data1’ directory and ‘file2.txt’ from the ‘data2’ directory to the ‘data_backup’ directory. 

Copy files from multiple source locations to present location

cp data1/file1.txt data2/file2.txt  .

The dot (.) in destination means present location. The above command will copy file1.txt and file2.txt to the present working directory (from the location you are executing the ‘cp’ command. Use ‘pwd’ command to check.)

How to Copy Directories in Linux using Terminal?

Now, let’s see how to copy directories in Linux using the ‘cp’ command.

Copy Directories using cp command in Linux

Copy single directory

If you try to copy a directory just like copying a file using the ‘cp’ command, you’ll encounter an error saying ‘-r’ is not specified.

To copy a directory using the ‘cp’ command, all you have to do is use the recursive (-R or -r) option.

cp -r data data_backup

The above command will make a copy of the ‘data’ directory with a different name ‘data_backup’ at the same location. If the “data_backup” directory exists, then the ‘cp’ command will copy the ‘data’ directory into the ‘data_backup’ directory. 

Copy multiple Directories

Just like copying multiple files, you can also copy multiple directories using the ‘cp’ command.  

cp -r data1 data2 data3 data_backup

The above command will copy ‘data1’, ‘data2’ and ’data3’ to the ‘data_backup’ directory.

Copy only subdirectories and files

If you want to only copy the subdirectories and files of a directory instead of the entire parent directory, then you can use the “no target directory” (-T) option.

cp -rT data data_backup

The above command will copy only the contents of the ‘data’ directory to the ‘data_backup’ directory.

Copying directories using Wildcard

Similar to copying files, you can use wildcards to copy directories.

cp -r data* backup

The above command will copy all the directories that start with the word “data” to the ‘backup’ directory.

Note: If you have any file that starts with the word “data” along with the directories, then the command will also copy the files to the ‘backup’ directory. This is because the recursive (-R) option is not only meant for copying directories, it will copy both files and directories recursively. 

Verbose cp command output

You can use the verbose (-v) with the recursive (-R) option to see the actions taken by the ‘cp’ command.

cp -rv data data_backup

When copying directories, you can also use all the other options of the ‘cp’ command that you used while copying files. The only difference is that you have to use it with the recursive (-R) option.

Additional Options of ‘cp’ Command

Below mentioned are some of the options that you can use with the ‘cp’ command. You’ve already seen some of these options above.

There are many other options that you can use with the ‘cp’ command. Check the “man page” for more details.

man cp 

Conclusion

This is how you copy files in Linux using the terminal. There are also other command-line utilities (Rsync, SCP etc.) that offer more features or allow you to copy files and directories from one system to another.

However, using the ‘cp’ command is the most basic and simple way to copy files and directories on a Linux system. You’ve seen how it can help you save a lot of time and improve your workflow over using the mouse or keyboard shortcuts. If you have any questions, feel free to ask them in the comments.