cp

Command Function

This command is used to create a copy for a file.

Syntax

cp [SOURCEFILE] [DESTFILE]

Parameters

Table 1 Parameter description

Parameter Description Value Range
--help Displays help information. N/A
SOURCEFILE Specifies the file to copy. This command does not support copy of a directory, but supports copy of multiple files at a time.
DESTFILE Specifies the file to create. Both a directory and a file are supported.

Usage Guidelines

  • The name of the source file cannot be the same as that of the destination file in the same path.

  • SOURCEFILE must exist and cannot be a directory.

  • The source file path supports asterisks (*) and question marks (?). The wildcard "*" indicates any number of characters, and "?" indicates any single character. DEST does not support wildcard characters. If the specified SOURCE matches multiple files, DEST must be a directory.

  • If DEST is a directory, this directory must exist. In this case, the destination file is named after the source file.

  • If the destination file path is a file, the directory for this file must exist. In this case, the file copy is renamed.

  • If the destination file does not exist, a new file is created. If the destination file already exists, the existing file is overwritten.

NOTICE
When important system resources are copied, unexpected results such as a system breakdown may occur. For example, when the /dev/uartdev-1 file is copied, the system may stop responding.

Example

Run cp hello-OHOS.txt hello-openharmony.txt ./tmp/.

Output

Copy hello-OHOS.txt and hello-openharmony.txt to /tmp/.

OHOS:/$ ls
bin  hello-OHOS.txt     proc     system    vendor
dev  hello-openharmony.txt  sdcard   userdata
etc  lib                storage  usr
OHOS:/$ mkdir tmp
OHOS:/$ cp hello-OHOS.txt hello-openharmony.txt tmp/
OHOS:/$ ll tmp
total 0
-rwxrwxrwx 1 0 0 0 1979-12-31 00:00 hello-OHOS.txt*
-rwxrwxrwx 1 0 0 0 1979-12-31 00:00 hello-openharmony.txt*