Question

4

How to copy into with cp if destination folder already exists?

rated 0 times [ 4] [ 0] / answers: 1 / hits: 7672 / 3 Years ago, mon, july 12, 2021, 6:07:00

Example...

This is what I want.

/tmp $ cp -f -R --verbose /tmp/a /tmp/b

`/tmp/a' -> `/tmp/b'

`/tmp/a/file2' -> `/tmp/b/file2'

`/tmp/a/file1' -> `/tmp/b/file1'

This is what I do not want.

/tmp $ cp -f -R --verbose /tmp/a /tmp/b

`/tmp/a' -> `/tmp/b/a'

`/tmp/a/file2' -> `/tmp/b/a/file2'

`/tmp/a/file1' -> `/tmp/b/a/file1'

How can I let cp behave as if the folder didn't already exist?

(I don't want to delete it beforehand. Just some files from /tmp/a to get copied into /tmp/b without creating a sub folder a inside /tmp/b. So it looks like /tmp/b/file1 /tmp/b/file2 and so on.)

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answered 3 Years ago calronze · Accepted Answer

Rsync was invented for this kind of thing.

rsync -av --update /source/ /destination

NB: Notice that /source/ has a trailing "/" which picks up file1, file2 and not the folder it is in. /destination doesnt have a trailing. So your solution looks like this:

rsync -av --update /tmp/a/ /tmp/b