How to copy files without overwriting?

Stephan_Craft · 02-16-2009, 08:26 PM

How to copy files without overwriting?
I tried

Code:

cp –rf

but it still asking me…

{BBI}Nexus{BBI} · 02-16-2009, 08:41 PM

If you use -u it will only overwrite an existing file if the source file is newer.

Stephan_Craft · 02-16-2009, 11:25 PM

the problm is that it's always asking if i want to ovewrite it... i need to insert crontab for my backups to copy only new files without asking...

linuxlover.chaitanya · 02-16-2009, 11:31 PM

Is there an alias set for cp to be cp -i?

dopla · 02-17-2009, 03:13 AM

It's possible that there is an alias of "cp -i" but then "-f" would override "-i". another possibliity is that you are writting to write-protected files and the system needs your confirmation. For the first case "cp -rf" should work fine (I simply bypass aliases by backslash eg "\cp -r"). For the second case, I'm not sure.

maas187 · 02-17-2009, 03:32 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Stephan_Craft

the problm is that it's always asking if i want to ovewrite it... i need to insert crontab for my backups to copy only new files without asking...

why dont you just rename the file to a diffrent name.

example. keep the old file and rename it to todays date. like file_name_Fed_11 and so on.

you could keep a log of backups, instead of rewriting.

jschiwal · 02-17-2009, 04:02 AM

To simply not overwrite files, you can use the -i option and add "< <(yes n)" to the end of the command. ( But any output including a prompt may cause a problem if you do this in cron. )

Also look at cp's backup options. This would allow copying and make backups of the old file.

i92guboj · 02-17-2009, 05:28 AM

Redirecting or even piping the output of "yes" into a cp -i command is a way, as jschiwal said. However, you might also consider to choose to a more advanced tool, like rsync (just an example, it might suit you or not for your purpose).