Copying, Moving, and Renaming Files and Directories
You've got directories, you've got files. How do you get the files into the directories? How do you change a file's name? And how do you make a copy?
Use the cp and mv commands.
This command copies two files from the current working directory into the ~/images2 directory:
$ cp -v navbar.gif redheart.gif ~/images2
`navbar.gif ' -> `/home/terri/images2/navbar.gif'
`redheart.gif ' -> `/home/terri/images2/redheart.gif'
If you're overwriting files, you might want to use the -b flag to create backups of the old files in the destination directory:
$ cp -bv icon-zip.gif main.gif ~/data2
`icon-zip.gif' -> `/home/terri/data2/icon-zip.gif' (backup: `/home/terri/data2/icon-zip.gif~')
`main.gif' -> `/home/terri/data2/main.gif' (backup: `/home/terri/data2/main.gif~')
What if you need to preserve the full filepath? Use the —parents flag:
$ cp -v —parents ~/homes/images/kitchen.jpg ~/data2
'/home/terri/homes/images/kitchen.jpg' ->
'/home/terri/data2/homes/images/kitchen.jpg'
Use the -s flag to create soft links to files, instead of copying the files:
$ cp -s navbar.gif redheart.gif ~/images2
Copy a directory and all of its contents with the -r flag:
$ cp -rv ~/homes/images/ /shared/archives
Moving and renaming files are done with the mv command. To move two files to another directory, use:
$ mv -v about.gif arrow.gif ~/data2
`about.gif' -> `/home/terri/data2/about.gif'
`arrow.gif' -> `/home/terri/data2/arrow.gif'
To rename a file, use:
$ mv -v downloads.gif email.gif
`downloads.gif' -> `email.gif'
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