noclobber for "cp" command?

rabiticide · 06-15-2011, 05:17 AM

I *think* I have used this command before:

cp -np source destination

n - noclobber
p - preserve timestamps, etc

I must be remembering wrong because I can't find this "noclobber" option to the "cp" command. What am I thinking of?

rK

smoker · 06-15-2011, 05:35 AM

wget has a noclobber option.

H_TeXMeX_H · 06-15-2011, 05:44 AM

From 'man cp':

Code:

       -n, --no-clobber
              do  not  overwrite  an  existing  file  (overrides a previous -i
              option)

       -P, --no-dereference
              never follow symbolic links in SOURCE

       -p     same as --preserve=mode,ownership,timestamps

       --preserve[=ATTR_LIST]
              preserve the specified attributes (default: mode,ownership,time-
              stamps),  if  possible  additional  attributes:  context, links,
              xattr, all

       --no-preserve=ATTR_LIST
              don't preserve the specified attributes

rabiticide · 06-15-2011, 03:38 PM

H TexMex H:

Can you look and see how old this man page is? Or does anyone know off hand, how long the -n option has been around? My "cp" has been around since 2008 and i get "invalid option -- n" when I try to use it and it's not in the man page.

MTK358 · 06-15-2011, 03:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rabiticide

My "cp" has been around since 2008 and i get "invalid option -- n" when I try to use it and it's not in the man page.

How do you know what year it's from? Is your distro past its end of life, or did you not update using your package manager?

To find out what version you have, run "cp --version".

colucix · 06-15-2011, 03:46 PM

The -n option has been introduced in coreutils version 7.1 at the beginning of year 2009. Here is the ChangeLog notification:

Code:

2009-01-14  Kamil Dudka  <kdudka@redhat.com>

        cp/mv: add --no-clobber (-n) option to not overwrite target
        * src/cp.c (usage): Show new option -n in --help.
        (main): Handle new option -n.
        * src/mv.c (usage): Show new option -n in --help.
        (main): Handle new option -n.

H_TeXMeX_H · 06-16-2011, 05:06 AM

Code:

bash-4.1$ cp --version
cp (GNU coreutils) 8.11
Copyright (C) 2011 Free Software Foundation, Inc.

Sweyn78 · 05-28-2013, 11:27 PM

Sorry to necropost, but this was pretty high up in Google search results (#1 for "cp no clobber"), so I thought I'd offer a solution for Googlers.
For some weird reason, the -n option wasn't working for me either (which is of course how I got here; I Googled it, lol), but typing:

Code:

# echo 'n' | cp -i

is essentially equivalent to the --no-clobber option, and worked perfectly for me.
I hope this helps!