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quickly backup or copy a file with bash

Terminal - quickly backup or copy a file with bash
cp filename{,.bak}
2009-02-05 17:12:03
User: elofland
Functions: cp
210
Up
Down
quickly backup or copy a file with bash
Add to favourites | Report as malicious

Alternatives

There are 2 alternatives - vote for the best!

Terminal - Alternatives
cp file.txt{,.bak}
2009-01-26 12:11:29
User: root
Functions: cp
21
Up
Down
Create a quick back-up copy of a file

Uses shell expansion to create a back-up called file.txt.bak

Comments (1) | Add to favourites | Report as malicious
cp -bfS.bak filename filename
2009-06-30 14:17:28
User: ioggstream
Functions: cp
5
Up
Down
quickly backup or copy a file with bash

less symbols, tab completion.

including # export SIMPLE_BACKUP_SUFFIX="_`date +%F`" in your .bashrc provides you to easily timestamp your files

Comments (0) | Add to favourites | Report as malicious

Know a better way?

If you can do better, submit your command here.

What others think

this is using the bash shell I think...

The same thing will work using mv e.g.

mv filename{,.bak}

nice command

Comment by finkployd 81 weeks and 6 days ago

I cannot tell you how many types I've typed out this command the hard way.

Of course one could write a bash/perl one-liner that would do the same thing "backify, or somesuch" with less typing :-D

Comment by QuantumFTL 81 weeks and 6 days ago

Here is some info on the general case.

http://www.linuxjournal.com/content/bash-brace-expansion

Comment by terrasect 81 weeks and 6 days ago

Using tab-completion, I don't know how much time this would save, especially having to type out all the symbols

Comment by swegner 80 weeks and 2 days ago

Lots of time. Typing symbols is not difficult. Think of a dir with files named test1_a2_tt.dat or something, but hundreds of them, tab completion will only help so much here.

Comment by jonathan 80 weeks ago

Or think of a case when you are not in the directory, but want to backup/edit the file from where you are.

Comment by ozymandias 79 weeks and 2 days ago

I prefer tab completion too, i.e. start typing the filename again and then tab, adding .bak to the end.

Comment by Buzzcp 72 weeks and 3 days ago

Okay, I get it now. There can't be a space between filename and the opening brace. For anyone more newb than me... NO SPACES!

Comment by xizdaqrian 70 weeks ago

tab completion or middle-click can be faster, that depends. anyway the game is to find the best solution in each case :P

Comment by ioggstream 60 weeks and 3 days ago

Another option would be to do [CTRL-W] to cut the filename, then [CTRL-Y][space][CTRL-Y].bak. If there are non-keyword characters (ie [[:alnum:]_] in the , you'll have to hit CTRL-W a few times consecutively.

Comment by intuited 36 weeks and 2 days ago

Your point of view

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