Commands using cp sorted by votes

Commands using cp (115)

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Copy a file to a new directory created on the fly

You need to cp, mv, scp, ..., some files around from one place to another, and after having laboriously typed out the source path, you remember that the destination directory doesn't yet exist, and so the command will fail. So rather than killing the command line and starting over, just interpolate the results of creating the directory and echo its name. You could DRY this with a for; do; done, but that may be more trouble than it's worth. Show Sample Output
This is sample output - yours may be different.
```
# hopefully, nothing
```
1

cp -r path/to/file/tree $(mkdir -p new/path/here; echo new/path/here)

wirespeed · 2012-04-27 16:18:11 0
Backup a file with a date-time stamp

Appends the input file with the date format YYYY-MM-DD.bak. Also runs silently if you remove the -v on the cp at the end of the function.
This is sample output - yours may be different.
1

buf () { oldname=$1; if [ "$oldname" != "" ]; then datepart="$(date +%Y-%m-%d).bak"; firstpart=`echo $oldname | cut -d "." -f 1`; newname=`echo $oldname | sed s/$firstpart/$firstpart.$datepart/`; cp -iv ${oldname} ${newname}; fi }

juliushibert · 2012-08-15 08:31:44 0
Find files of two different extensions and copy them to a directory
This is sample output - yours may be different.
1

find * -regextype posix-extended -regex '.*\.(ext_1|ext_2)' -exec cp {} copy_target_directory \;

shawn_abdushakur · 2014-02-06 15:58:32 0
quickly backup or copy a file with bash

This inserts timestamp instead of .bak extension.
This is sample output - yours may be different.
1

cp filename{,.`date +%Y%m%d-%H%M%S`}

techtonik · 2014-02-21 10:21:28 0
Create backup copy of file, adding suffix of the date of the file modification (NOT today's date)
This is sample output - yours may be different.
1

cp file{,.$(date -d @$(stat -c '%Y' file) "+%y%m%d")}

rgawenda · 2019-09-09 11:49:28 0
Create backup copy of file, adding suffix of the date of the file modification (NOT today's date)

If your `date` command has `-r` option, you don't need `stat`
This is sample output - yours may be different.
1

cp file{,.$(date -r file "+%y%m%d")}

brx75x · 2019-09-19 09:42:38 0
catch all the txt files into a start_dir tree and copy them into a single end_dir
This is sample output - yours may be different.
0

find start_dir -name *.txt | xargs -J % cp % end_dir/

elsime · 2009-02-23 09:05:13 1
sync a directory of corrupted jpeg with a source directory

Find all corrupted jpeg in the current directory, find a file with the same name in a source directory hierarchy and copy it over the corrupted jpeg file. Convenient to run on a large bunch of jpeg files copied from an unsure medium. Needs the jpeginfo tool, found in the jpeginfo package (on debian at least).
This is sample output - yours may be different.
0

for i in *jpg; do jpeginfo -c $i | grep -E "WARNING|ERROR" | cut -d " " -f 1 | xargs -I '{}' find /mnt/sourcerep -name {} -type f -print0 | xargs -0 -I '{}' cp -f {} ./ ; done

vincentp · 2009-05-07 00:30:36 0
Overwrite local files from copies in a flat directory, even if they're in a different directory structure

You could start this one with for f in *; do BUT using the find with "-type f" ensures you only get files not any dirs you might have It'll also create backups of the files it's overwriting Of course, this assumes that you don't have any files with duplicated filenames in your target structure
This is sample output - yours may be different.
0

for f in $(find * -maxdepth 0 -type f); do file=$(find ~/target -name $f); if [ -n "$file" ]; then cp $file ${file}.bak; mv $f $file; fi; done

sanmiguel · 2009-07-08 10:18:06 0
Do a search-and-replace in a file after making a backup

"&&" runs sed if and only if the backup completed and /bin/cp exited cleanly. Works for multiple files; just specify multiple filenames (or glob). Use -v switch for cp to play it safe.
This is sample output - yours may be different.
0

for file in <filename>; do cp $file{,.bak} && sed 's/old/new/g' $file.bak > $file; done

Cenobite · 2009-08-25 16:19:45 2
Copy the directory you want to specify a comma separated list of directories to copy.
This is sample output - yours may be different.
0

cp -arv ~/Documents/{foo,bar} --target-directory=~/buzz/

sugitaro · 2010-01-30 08:38:54 0
copy selected folder found recursively under src retaining the structure

This command will a particular folder-name recursively found under the src-path-to-search to the dest-path-to-copy retaining the folder structure
This is sample output - yours may be different.
0

find <src-path-to-search> -name "<folder-name>" | xargs -i cp -avfr --parent {} /<dest-path-to-copy>

crxz0193 · 2010-11-22 10:58:42 1
Backup a file with a date-time stamp

"infix" version in bash (4.x+) Remove -v to make it silent. BTW: The OP forgot to use "cat" and "nmap" ;-) I had a good laugh though. Show Sample Output
This is sample output - yours may be different.
```
$ buf a.txt
`a.txt' -> `a-20101215_104638.txt'
$ buf a.txt.gz
`a.txt.gz' -> `a-20101215_104647.txt.gz'
```
0

buf() { f=${1%%.*};e=${1/$f/};cp -v $1 $f-$(date +"%Y%m%d_%H%M%S")$e;}

unefunge · 2010-12-15 09:50:04 0
Backup a file with a date-time stamp

even shorter (infix) version. Show Sample Output
This is sample output - yours may be different.
```
$ buf() { cp -v $1 ${1/${1%%.*}/$f-$(date +"%Y%m%d_%H%M%S")};}
$ buf a.txt
`a.txt' -> `a-20101215_131256.txt'
$ buf a.txt.gz
`a.txt.gz' -> `a-20101215_131305.txt.gz'
```
0

buf() { cp -v $1 ${1/${1%%.*}/$f-$(date +"%Y%m%d_%H%M%S")};}

unefunge · 2010-12-15 12:16:03 0
Reorder file with max 100 file per folder

Smaller Code Better Runtime
This is sample output - yours may be different.
0

find files/ -type f | while read line; do if [ $((i++%100)) -eq 0 ]; then mkdir $((++folder)); fi; cp $line $folder/; done

sraeder · 2011-02-13 00:25:48 0
Quick and dirty version control for one file

Bash function copies a file prefixed with a version number to a subdirectory Show Sample Output
This is sample output - yours may be different.
```
file.svg
file.svg_versions/v01_file.svg
file.svg_versions/v02_file.svg
```
0

v () { ( IFS=$'\n'; suf="_versions"; mkdir -p "$1$suf"; nr=`ls "$1$suf" | wc -l`; nr=`printf "%02d" $(($nr + 1))`; cp "$1" "$1$suf/v${nr}_$1" ) }

dubnov · 2011-04-22 07:33:51 0
Search and install true type fonts under user home directory

1) Find true type fonts; 2) Copy them to /usr/share/fonts/truetype; 3) Reload font information.
This is sample output - yours may be different.
0

find ~ -name "*.ttf" -exec cp {} /usr/share/fonts/truetype \; & fc-cache -f

scripteles · 2011-05-25 20:18:33 0
Copy the most recent wav file from /media/ to the current folder

Watch out if you have several USB drives plugged in: it scans the whole /media/ folder !!! You can replace /media/ by the path of a specific USB drive (something like /media/F77A-530B/) I use a sound recorder and I want to plug the recorder and grab the most recent sound. That's what this command does. Use mv instead of cp to move instead of copy. Change *.wav to the required file type.
This is sample output - yours may be different.
0

cp $(find /media/ -type f -name "*.wav" -printf "%T@ %h/%f\n" | sort | tail -1 | awk '{ print $2 }') .

hamoid · 2012-06-01 12:45:43 0
Edit file without changing the timestamp

Copies file to a temporary location, edit and set to real file's time stamp then copy back. Assumes access to /tmp and has $EDITOR, but can be replaced with better values.
This is sample output - yours may be different.
0

edit-notime () { FILE=$1; TMP=`mktemp /tmp/file-XXXXXX`; cp -p $FILE $TMP; $EDITOR $TMP; touch -r $FILE $TMP; cp -p $TMP $FILE; rm -f $TMP; }

jecxjoopenid · 2012-10-31 00:54:19 0
Find a file with a certail date stamp
This is sample output - yours may be different.
0

cp -p `ls -l | awk '/Apr 14/ {print $NF}'` /usr/users/backup_dir

akashrpatel · 2012-12-27 19:12:08 0
Recursively backup files
This is sample output - yours may be different.
0

find /var/www/ -name file -exec cp {} {}.bak \;

loicb · 2013-01-26 06:11:26 1
Recursively backup files

Let the shell handle the repetition in stead of find :)
This is sample output - yours may be different.
0

find /var/www/ -name file -exec cp {}{,.bak} \;

joepd · 2013-01-27 01:03:28 0

Copy modified files between two Git commits

git diff --name-only --diff-filter=AMXTCR HEAD~2 HEAD | xargs -l -I{} cp --parents --verbose "{}" target_dir

batandwa · 2013-02-11 08:12:40 0

copy zip files which contains XXX
This is sample output - yours may be different.
0

for i in *RET.zip; do unzip -l "$i"| grep -B 4 XXX | grep RET| sed "s/.\+EPS/EPS/" |xargs -I '{}' cp '{}' out/'{}';done;

tsonkomirchev · 2013-02-13 17:24:37 0
make a bunch of files based on a template file

make a bunch of files with the same permissions, owner, group, and content as a template file (handy if you have much to do w. .php, .html files or alike)
This is sample output - yours may be different.
0

echo "template file: ";read tpl;echo "new file(s separated w. space):"; read fl;touch $fl;find $fl -exec cp -ap $tpl "{}" \;

knoppix5 · 2013-03-08 10:00:36 2
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Burn an ISO on commandline with wodim instead cdrecord

Convert seconds to [DD:][HH:]MM:SS

Converts any number of seconds into days, hours, minutes and seconds. sec2dhms() { declare -i SS="$1" D=$(( SS / 86400 )) H=$(( SS % 86400 / 3600 )) M=$(( SS % 3600 / 60 )) S=$(( SS % 60 )) [ "$D" -gt 0 ] && echo -n "${D}:" [ "$H" -gt 0 ] && printf "%02g:" "$H" printf "%02g:%02g\n" "$M" "$S" }

Find the package that installed a command

Show the UUID of a filesystem or partition

Shows the UUID of the given partition (here /dev/sda7). Doesn't need to be root.

Rename files in batch

Search for a string inside all files in the current directory

This is how I typically grep. -R recurse into subdirectories, -n show line numbers of matches, -i ignore case, -s suppress "doesn't exist" and "can't read" messages, -I ignore binary files (technically, process them as having no matches, important for showing inverted results with -v) I have grep aliased to "grep --color=auto" as well, but that's a matter of formatting not function.

Jump to line X in file in Nano.

Starts the cursor on line X of file foo. Useful for longer files in which it takes a long time to scroll. If X is greater than the number of lines in file foo, it will go to the last existing line.

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Commands using cp (115)

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