Why does "cp -Rp ~/foo /Volumes/KINGSTON" give "cp: chflags: /Volumes/KINGSTON/Proj/Proj/Color.h: Invalid argument"

Question

This is on Mac OS X Lion, and I use the following to back up a project folder

cp -Rp ~/foo /Volumes/KINGSTON

or

cp -a ~/foo /Volumes/KINGSTON

The -p or -a is so that the timestamps of the files are preserved. (KINGSTON is the USB flash drive, and Get Info says I have permission to read and write on this device).

But it will give many errors such as:

cp: chflags: /Volumes/KINGSTON/Proj/Proj/Color.h: Invalid argument

Can this be fixed? thanks.

score 4 · Accepted Answer · answered May 27 '12 at 04:49

4

What filesystem is your KINGSTON formatted to? If it is FAT32, I would guess the file you have mentioned have some attributes which cannot be set on a file in the FAT32 filesystem. In that case, if all you want to preserve is the timestamp, you may:

Switch to use some other command for backup, such as rsync
Reformat your KINGSTON flash drive to HFS+
Remove the special attributes on that file, and hope it won't happen in the future

answered May 27 '12 at 04:49

Raymond Tau

682
3
16

good guess... in fact it happens on the external hard drive using FAT32 as well... – nonopolarity May 27 '12 at 04:59
1

So after I formatted it to Mac OS Extended (Case Sensitive), the error went away... If it is formatted to ExFAT, the error will still be there – nonopolarity May 27 '12 at 05:07

Why does "cp -Rp ~/foo /Volumes/KINGSTON" give "cp: chflags: /Volumes/KINGSTON/Proj/Proj/Color.h: Invalid argument"

1 Answers1