I type:
cp /home/scott/"Services - NY.xls" /home/Documents/
I get cp: cannot create regular file
'/home/Documents/': Is a directory
I type:
mv (same syntax)
I get mv: cannot stat No such file or directory

I have studied three intro guides and referred to one book on Linux, but still am stumped by the syntax. I was once adept in DOS and would like to master this. If you can point out my error and/or recommend a more detailed source, I'd appreciate it.

OK, I read the other post. I'm misusing "syntax" Let's say "arguments" I apologize.

try cp -r for directories

1 members found this post helpful.

cp by itself copies only a file. If you want to copy multiple files in a directory to another directory, you need to use 'cp -R'. It's the same for mv.

To get more detailed information, type 'man cp' and/or 'man mv' into a terminal. Man is the command to display the manual pages for a command. You can man any terminal command and get the manual page for it. Or use 'command --help' for a shorter help summary.

1 members found this post helpful.

Many thanks.

Mountaineer

It sounds like /home/Documents/ doesn't exist.

I don't understand. I don't need the /home since I'm already in /home. There is a Documents folder in /home, so I refer to it by /Documents. Do T know that /home and /Documents exist. I guess that I'm not following you. Please elaborate. And thanks for listening.

Does
exist?
Do you have write access to
Don't you mean
If you refer to it by
you refer to the Documents folder in the "/" directory, not "/home"

Kind regards

/ is a directory in Linux, the highest level directory in the filesystem.

When you say /home, you're referring to a directory in / called home.
When you say /Documents, you're referring to a directory in / called Documents. Documents isn't in / though, from what you just said it's in /home.

You could reference it by /home/Documents, or if you're already in /home, you could simply refer to it by Documents or ./Documents (notice the . in front of /, . means "here")

Isn't my original command referenced as you say,ie; /home/Documents? I did include the /scott in my original post.
I probably could have typed cp "file.xls" Documents, without all the path. I had the .xls file in my home directory and I wanted to move it to my Documents directory.I'm very grateful for both (all) your comments. But if I could see the command written properly, maybe it would penetrate.

Kind regards

1 members found this post helpful.

Thanks again. Now I get it. I was close but not enough. This language is unforgiving.

Using Tab completion will complete partially typed file names and directories, escaping "evil" characters. This will make typing more forgiving.

1 members found this post helpful.