Preserving permissions when using cp
 

Is there a way I can preserve the permissions of a file when I use cp to copy it?
For example, say I want to copy /var to /mnt/nd/var.
Files in /var are owned by many different people, but when I copy the files from /var to /mnt/nd/var as root, the files are all owned by root. :(

How can I make it so that I can copy files, while not changing/perserving their ownership and permissions?
Thanks!

cp has a option for this, -P you can chhose which bits it preserves.

the reverse option is --no-preserve.

On most basic commands (okay nearly all console commands)

typing
thecommand --help

gives you all the options and for more detailed info try
man thecommand

Thanks for your help!
I was aware that I could find it by doing "cp --help" or looking at a man page, but this was a case where I didn't have access to either of those.