[SOLVED] cp: Create any directories necessary to open the destination path

entz · 12-25-2011, 08:35 PM

https://bdsc.webapps.blackberry.com/...opic/c/cp.html

please see the above link.
this shows from bb sdk how the "-c" option can eventually omit the need to use mkdir when the target dirs aren't existing yet

i'm trying to find a similar feature in gnu version of cp but no avail so far

how can i replicate the same effect without using mkdir?

cheers

syg00 · 12-25-2011, 09:05 PM

rsync ?.

lwasserm · 12-25-2011, 09:06 PM

-R or -r (for "recursive") One or both of these are common options for many unix/linux commands when a recursive action is desired.

entz · 12-26-2011, 08:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by syg00

rsync ?.

No , i don't think so

Quote:

Originally Posted by lwasserm

-R or -r (for "recursive") One or both of these are common options for many unix/linux commands when a recursive action is desired.

actually i already know how to do recursive copying of directory and that is not what i'm asking to be honest.
the point is , regarding copying files to a destination that doesn't yet exist and basically having cp create that directory beforehand as if i was running mkdir prior to the actual copying ...

thanks

lwasserm · 12-31-2011, 10:23 PM

Not sure what you are asking for. cp -r sourcedir destdir will copy everything in sourcedir including any subdirectories to destdir, and create destdir and any subdirectories as necessary so that the contents of destdir are the same as sourcedir. What is missing from this behavior that you are trying to accomplish?

entz · 01-05-2012, 11:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lwasserm

Not sure what you are asking for. cp -r sourcedir destdir will copy everything in sourcedir including any subdirectories to destdir, and create destdir and any subdirectories as necessary so that the contents of destdir are the same as sourcedir. What is missing from this behavior that you are trying to accomplish?

okay i've tried what you said using coreutils 7.1
here is what is missing :

if you execute something like

Code:

cp -r source existing/non-existing-destdir

then you're fine , however

Code:

cp -r source existing/non-existing/non-existing-destdir

then you've a problem , and that's what's missing

lwasserm · 01-06-2012, 06:15 PM

I am confused by your examples. Are you actually using a
command line that looks like

Code:

cp -r source existing/non-existing/non-existing-destdir

or is that supposed to represent what you'd like the result to be?

Maybe there is something else going on here. Are any of the subdirectories that fail to get copied actually symlinks?

entz · 01-06-2012, 08:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lwasserm

I am confused by your examples. Are you actually using a
command line that looks like

Code:

cp -r source existing/non-existing/non-existing-destdir

or is that supposed to represent what you'd like the result to be?

Maybe there is something else going on here. Are any of the subdirectories that fail to get copied actually symlinks?

Yes that's the command line i'm using and it fails although it shouldn't , please try it out yourself
to illustrate :
"source" is the source directory to be copied
"existing/non-existing/non-existing-destdir" is the destination path where the first dir does exist while the last 2 do not !
"existing/non-existing/" is also the destination path however this example actually works as opposed to the above , this means that only one non-existing directory can be created ..... i see that as a bug since if one non-existing directory can be created by cp on the fly then why not an infinite number of dirs ?

in other words , i expect that cp creates all the non existing dirs in the provided dest dir argument with the last non-existing dir actually being the copied source dir (with it's contents of course)

besides commmands such as

Code:

mkdir -p existing/non-existing/......many non existing dirs...../non-existing

work without problems as expected

i hope this makes it clear

Cedrik · 01-07-2012, 03:54 AM

It is not a bug, cp requires that the directory where you want to copy files exists, this is same behaviour in other OS (Mac OS, Windows...)

You can write your own cp function, in your .bashrc file for example

Code:

function mycp()
{
    if [[ -z "$1" || -z "$2" ]]; then
        echo "Usage: mycp SOURCE... DIRECTORY"
        return 1;
    fi
    mkdir -p "$2" 
    cp -r "$1" "$2" 
}

then use it with:

Code:

mycp source existing/non-existing/non-existing-destdir

lwasserm · 01-07-2012, 10:04 AM

I see what you want now! I don't think that the cp command can do that but Cedrik's solution looks pretty good. You could even write a function or alias named "cp" to run Cedrik's code if needed, or else just pass the args on to the regular cp command. Then a separate command would not be necessary.

entz · 01-10-2012, 05:12 AM

okay thanks guys !