Can I cp hidden files?

JosephS · 03-12-2008, 05:23 PM

Is there a way to copy hidden (.) files with cp?
I tried to tried quoting ''
and backslash \
It just says: omitting directory

Thanks

billymayday · 03-12-2008, 05:46 PM

I don't follow.

cp /home/user/.hidden /home/user/subdirectory/

or similar should work.

Can you paste the exact command and error message please?

pwc101 · 03-12-2008, 05:52 PM

To copy directories, you need to use the -R flag;

Code:

cp -R .your_dir /your/destination

matthewg42 · 03-12-2008, 06:17 PM

The . at the start of a file does not affect your ability to copy it. . confers no special permissions - it is a convention by which some programs (e.g. ls, or file managers / file selectors) will omit files named starting with a . from "normal" listing, that is all. Note that the names "." and ".." are special - they mean the current directory and the parent to the current directory respectively.

If you cannot copy a file, it is probably for one of these reasons:

The file is not readable by user user (according to file permissions)
The destination directory is not writable/readbale/executable by your user
The decide to which you are trying to copy the file has insufficient space left

Less likely:

The extended file attributes of the destination directory are such that you cannot modify it
The device to which you are trying to copy the file is mounted read-only. Note that Linux will often re-mount devices as read-only when a hardware problem is detected (.g. bad blocks on the device), so you might find a device is suddenly mounted read-only unexpectedly.
The device to which you are trying to copy the file does not support the file name length or characters in the file name.

JosephS · 03-12-2008, 07:59 PM

I added the -r option which I had forgot. That solved one of my problems.
I'm also trying to make a copy of all my . files and directories, but not having success:

bash-3.1$ cp -r '.*' backup
cp: cannot stat `.*': No such file or directory

bash-3.1$ cp -r \.* backup
cp: cannot copy a directory, `.', into itself, `backup/.'
cp: cannot copy a directory, `.', into itself, `backup/.'
cp: cannot copy a directory, `.', into itself, `backup/.'
cp: cannot copy a directory, `.', into itself, `backup/.'
It copies a lot of files and directories as well as backup into backup

Thanks.

billymayday · 03-12-2008, 08:02 PM

Did you try straight

cp -r .* backup

?

matthewg42 · 03-12-2008, 08:13 PM

Usually, the pattern * will omit files and directories with a . at the start. However, you can set a shell option to change this. For example:

Code:

bash$ mkdir test
bash$ cd test
bash$ touch .hidden visible
bash$ echo *
visible
bash$ shopt -s dotglob
bash$ echo *
.hidden visible

This might be useful for what you are trying to do.

Flimm · 01-02-2009, 04:48 PM

If you're copying all files and directories from one directory to another, and want to include hidden files and directories, do:

Code:

cp -rT /from /to

Alternatively, you could do:

Code:

find /from -maxdepth 1 -execdir cp -r '{}' /to \;

To copy just the hidden files, do:

Code:

find /from -maxdepth 1 -name ".?*" -execdir cp -r '{}' /to \;