How to copy file preserving directory path in Linux?

Question

I have Eclipse projects and ".project" file in them, the directory structure looks like 'myProject/.project'. I want to copy these '.project' files to another directory, but I want the enclosing directory name to be preserved.

Let's say I have 'a/myProject/.project', I want to copy 'myProject/.project' to 'b', so it be 'b/myProject/.project', but 'b/myProject' doesn't exist. When I try in a:

 cp -r ./myProject/.project ../b

it copies only '.project' file itself, without 'myProject' directory. Please advise.

score 209 · Accepted Answer · edited Sep 01 '14 at 05:40

209

The switch you need is --parents, e.g.:

jim@prometheus:~$ cp --parents test/1/.moo test2/
jim@prometheus:~$ ls -la test2/
total 42
drwxr-xr-x   3 jim jim    72 2010-09-14 09:32 .
drwxr-xr-x 356 jim jim 43136 2010-09-14 09:32 ..
drwxr-xr-x   3 jim jim    72 2010-09-14 09:32 test
jim@prometheus:~$ ls -la test2/test/1/.moo
-rw-r--r-- 1 jim jim 0 2010-09-14 09:32 test2/test/1/.moo

edited Sep 01 '14 at 05:40

John Kugelman

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answered Sep 14 '10 at 08:34

James Yale

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Note that the --parents flag requires -r as well, otherwise it fails. – Moshe Zvi Jan 27 '22 at 20:33
1

@MosheZvi It fails only when `cp --parents ` is used. – Kirill Bulygin Feb 11 '22 at 16:14

score 31 · Answer 2 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:41

31

You can also use rsync -R, which works on OSX where cp --parents isn't available.

https://stackoverflow.com/a/13855290/598940

edited May 23 '17 at 12:41

Community

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answered Dec 24 '15 at 05:22

alecbz

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score 10 · Answer 3 · edited Sep 01 '14 at 07:06

10

Use tar with something like:

mkdir b; tar cpf - myProject/ | tar xpf - -C b/

(Not tested. Give it a dry run first or try in a mockup scenario.)

edited Sep 01 '14 at 07:06

John Kugelman

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answered Sep 14 '10 at 08:39

lorenzog

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works surprisingly well! On mac: mkdir b; tar -c -f new.tar $(cat myP); tar -x -f new.tar -C b/; #myP is text file with list of paths-to-files to be copied – alexey Aug 23 '16 at 21:14

score 5 · Answer 4 · edited Oct 15 '16 at 16:33

5

First use mkdir -p to create the destination folder with recursive parent path creation. Then copy the contents to the destination folder:

mkdir -p b/myProject/.project
cp -r a/myProject/.project/file b/myProject/.project

edited Oct 15 '16 at 16:33

techraf

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answered Jun 02 '12 at 22:59

Weimin

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score 4 · Answer 5 · edited Oct 15 '16 at 16:35

4

I use cpio in combination with find. Explanation here.

Example for your use case:

find /a/myProject/.project/ -type f | cpio -p -dumv /b/.

This command finds all files in /a/myProject/.project/ and copies, while preserving the path, any files contained within.

edited Oct 15 '16 at 16:35

techraf

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answered Mar 17 '15 at 09:40

Alex Avlonitis

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.project is a file, not dir! – ddbug Oct 15 '16 at 11:12
This is most flexible as you can pick the files/directories to be copied, discard the -v option to avoid verbose outputs, and add the --quiet option can suppress the "xx blocks" at the end. – jasxun Jul 09 '21 at 23:17

score 3 · Answer 6 · edited Oct 15 '16 at 16:35

3

cp -P a/myProject/.project b

See man cp for more information.

edited Oct 15 '16 at 16:35

techraf

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answered Sep 14 '10 at 08:06

Maxfer

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This doesn't seem to help. It only copies '.project' itself into b, but it doesn't copy 'myProject'. – dhblah Sep 14 '10 at 08:11

score 2 · Answer 7 · edited Jul 29 '16 at 21:24

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Additionally to --parents it is also required to add -r option in order to avoid omitting the copy of most inner directory

$ cp --parents test/1/.moo test2/
cp: omitting directory ‘test/1/.moo’

So the command that works for me is

$ cp --parents -r test/1/.moo test2/

edited Jul 29 '16 at 21:24

Katherine Villyard

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answered Jul 29 '16 at 19:59

cml.co

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score 1 · Answer 8 · edited Oct 15 '16 at 16:33

Please be aware that there appears to be a bug in cp --parents. When I used --parents along with --preserve=all, the date and time attributes of SOME destination directories were NOT preserved.

The following link seems to confirm that this is a bug: bug#8767: cp: --preserve=all doesn't work for the parents when --parent is used.

So it looks as though you can't rely on attributes being preserved when using --parents along with such as --preserve=all or -p.

score -3 · Answer 9 · answered May 15 '15 at 07:44

-3

I used --parents with the cp command and worked perfeclty with me. for more details always use the manual. Thank you.

answered May 15 '15 at 07:44

sys0dm1n

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Doesn't add anything to the other 5 answers. – Deer Hunter May 15 '15 at 08:40
Answerers please note that .project in Eclipse is a file, not directory. So e.g. mkdir -p a/.project makes no sense. – ddbug Oct 15 '16 at 11:10

How to copy file preserving directory path in Linux?

9 Answers9