cp

lovedaddy · 03-15-2003, 08:45 AM

Got a dir with a load of file containing spaces.
Want to copy them to another location.
cp returns "Argument list too long".

I got as far as realising I need ls -Q (to get a listing with quotes round the file names) and passing that to xargs - but I cannot get the last bit.

Any help would be great.

Cheers

niknah · 03-15-2003, 08:59 AM

type cp -a /dir /destinationdir

if you dont want to copy everything in your dir you need to copy a little bit at a time, like...
cp a* /destdir
cp b* /destdir

this is a shell problem, it can't handle too many filenames.

to use ls -Q, try...
cp `ls -Q` /destdir

fsbooks · 03-15-2003, 09:56 AM

I do like ls -Q, always something new to use.

For xargs, do the following:

ls -Q|xargs cp {} /destdir

moses · 03-15-2003, 06:29 PM

do this instead:

Code:

cd /srcdir
tar cvf - . | ( cd /destir; tar xf -)