If I use the cp command to copy a directory A to the inside of directory B, will it double the amount of space that it takes up (directory A + copied version of directory A)? I can't imagine that would be the case, but would it disturb the look up time on disk for the files in that directory?
I am a beginner so I'm sorry if this question doesn't really make sense.
cp copies files. If you specify a directory (I've never tested this) it would probably copy the contents of this directory, and place them all (including the original folder) into the destination directory. Yes, it will create two copies of the target file(s) and yes, it will probably disturb a number of things like that.
You can drag and drop files easily in Nautilus to move them naturally, without the negative effects on hard drive optimization. The mv command in terminal will do the same thing. It's similar in usability to the cp command:
mv </oldlocation/target> </newlocation/destination/>
Where the target is a file, or a directory, and the destination is a directory.
NOTE: If you use mv </location/filenameA> <location/filenameB> it will rename the file.
For example,
mv /etc/x11/xorg.conf /etc/x11/xorg.conf.backup
will rename the xorg.conf text file to xorg.conf.backup. Try doing a google search of useful linux command line tools.
Another neat trick in command line is using the 'man' option. For example
mv man
or
sudo man
The 'man' stands for manual. Every terminal application has a manual detailing the nature of the application, all of it's options, and definitions for everything. You can run the man option with any terminal command you install.
