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I have a directory, let's say, "work": ~/work/
This directory has some sub-folders (d1, d2...) in it and files in these sub-folders. I want to make a backup copy in the same folder, so it would be like: ~/backup/work/
However, when I use
cp -r ./work ./backup
the folder "work" is not copied, only its subfoders (so now it's ~/backup/d1 ~/backup/d2...)
Any idea how to make it work? I'm quite new to shell, so I'm missing something :)
Vilmar
Posted 2012-09-30T20:53:55.707
Reputation: 131
2
cp will not create leading directories; when it sees a path that does not exist, it will assume that it shall be the new name of the directory being copied.
Try copying into a directory that already exists: mkdir work first, then cp -r work backup.
Thanks, I thought there was a way of copying the folder without creating a new folder with the same name, but now I see that is impossible with just cp command. Thanks! – None – 2012-09-30T21:13:17.743
1
Try
rsync -avz ./work ./backup
kjohri
Posted 2012-09-30T20:53:55.707
Reputation: 111
Yeah I found info about rsync, but I had to figure out how to use it with cp :) – Vilmar – 2012-10-01T05:19:20.053
0
cp -r ./work/ ./backup/
or
cp -r ./work ./backup/work
API-Beast
Posted 2012-09-30T20:53:55.707
Reputation: 366
Tried this before, it gives out an error: "Cannot create directory './backup/src': No such file or directory – None – 2012-09-30T21:04:25.697
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[max@localhost ~]$ mkdir aaa [max@localhost ~]$ cd aaa [max@localhost aaa]$ touch 1 2 3 [max@localhost aaa]$ mkdir bbb [max@localhost aaa]$ touch 3 4 5 [max@localhost aaa]$ cd
This is The content of directory aaa
[max@localhost ~]$ ls -l aaa/ total 4 -rw-rw-r-- 1 max max 0 Oct 19 17:29 1 -rw-rw-r-- 1 max max 0 Oct 19 17:29 2 -rw-rw-r-- 1 max max 0 Oct 19 17:29 3 -rw-rw-r-- 1 max max 0 Oct 19 17:29 4 -rw-rw-r-- 1 max max 0 Oct 19 17:29 5 drwxrwxr-x 2 max max 4096 Oct 19 17:29 bbb
To copy any directory use cp -r or cp -R or cp --recursive command
Here -r, -R, --recursive means copy directories recursively
[max@localhost ~]$ cp -r aaa/ ccc/ [max@localhost ~]$ cd ccc/ [max@localhost ccc]$ ls -l total 4 -rw-rw-r-- 1 max max 0 Oct 19 17:30 1 -rw-rw-r-- 1 max max 0 Oct 19 17:30 2 -rw-rw-r-- 1 max max 0 Oct 19 17:30 3 -rw-rw-r-- 1 max max 0 Oct 19 17:30 4 -rw-rw-r-- 1 max max 0 Oct 19 17:30 5 drwxrwxr-x 2 max max 4096 Oct 19 17:30 bbb
Here content of directory aaa is copied to directory ccc including files and sub directory contents.
max
Posted 2012-09-30T20:53:55.707
Reputation: 3 329
are you saying that the above case is what you want to happen, or what is currently happening? Can you rephrase / reformat your question to make this more clear? – Will Palmer – 2012-09-30T20:57:34.187
I want to copy ./work to ./backup, so it will be ./backup/work. I could only come up with the command above, at it moves not "work", but its subfolders, so it looks like ./backup/d1 ("d1" is a subfolder in "work") – None – 2012-09-30T21:07:04.417
In that case, I think that @Petr Baudis's answer is the one you want. – Will Palmer – 2012-09-30T21:08:55.247