Copy Directories and its files to a new directory just as it is

arundhyoti · 07-13-2012, 03:10 AM

Hi

I want to copy all files and subdirectories to a new directory as it is.
~/Documents/folder to ~/avr/newfolder

folder has subdirectories f1 f2 f3 and files within them. cp command is just not helping. Creating newfolder yes but without f1 f2 f3

Am i missing an option? cp -a isnt working for me.I am using Ubuntu 12.04

evo2 · 07-13-2012, 03:19 AM

Hi,

what exactly is happening when you use cp -a. Ie when you run

Code:

cp -a ~/Documents/folder ~/avr/newfolder

?

Evo2.

Didier Spaier · 07-13-2012, 03:21 AM

Code:

cp -ar ~/Documents/folder ~/avr/newfolder

evo2 · 07-13-2012, 03:27 AM

Hi,

Quote:

Originally Posted by Didier Spaier

Code:

cp -ar ~/Documents/folder ~/avr/newfolder

Hmm, my cp (GNU coreutils 8.13) man page indicates the '-a', is the same as '-dR --preserve=all', and that '-R' is the same as '-r'. What version do you have?

Evo2.

Didier Spaier · 07-13-2012, 03:32 AM

Well, I have the same - in fact I didn't check the man page

evo2 · 07-13-2012, 03:38 AM

Hi,

Quote:

Originally Posted by Didier Spaier

Well, I have the same - in fact I didn't check the man page

Ahh, ok. I don't normally use cp for recursive stuff preferring rsync, so my memory of cp options was quite fuzzy.

Cheers,

Evo2.

arundhyoti · 07-13-2012, 03:47 AM

Well a little wierd.... my directory actually had space in it
Tried two codes with -a option

arundhyoti@Sarkar:~/Documents/from HOD$ cp -a Documents/from\ HOD avr/fromHOD
cp: cannot stat `Documents/from HOD': No such file or directory

arundhyoti@Sarkar:~/Documents/from HOD$ cp -a Documents/from* avr/fromHOD
cp: cannot stat `Documents/from*': No such file or directory

but now
cp -a ~/Documents/"from HOD" ~/avr/fromHOD

worked! cant understant why the other two codes didnt work though

arundhyoti · 07-13-2012, 03:50 AM

OMG! I cant believe I missed the home in the path name. So thats y it wasnt't working!

Thanks for your replies