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Questions[cp](ubuntu)

Martin Hope
WinEunuuchs2Unix
Asked: 2019-06-26 16:44:37 +0800 CST
  • 13

Background

In Linux you can:

  • List a group of files with ls Filename*
  • Remove a group of files with rm Filename*
  • Move a group of files with mv Filename* /New/Directory
  • But you cannot copy a group of files with: cp Filename* *.bak

Change Linux cp command to copy group of files

I have a group of files I'd like to copy without entering the names one by one and using the cp command:

$ ls gmail-meta3*
gmail-meta3                          gmail-meta3-REC-1558392194-26467821
gmail-meta3-LAB-1558392194-26467821  gmail-meta3-YAD-1558392194-26467821

How can I use something like the old DOS command copy gmail-meta3* *.bak?

I don't want to type similar command four times:

cp gmail-meta3-LAB-1558392194-26467821 gmail-meta3-LAB-1558392194-26467821.bak

I'm looking for a script/function/app that accepts parameters for old and new filename group and not something with hard-coded filenames. For example, a user can type:

copy gmail-meta3* *.bak

or they might type:

copy gmail-meta3* save-*
command-line cp ms-dos
Martin Hope
phenomenon
Asked: 2018-06-09 21:18:56 +0800 CST
  • 10

I have a bunch of text files with the name 

foo_bar_abc_1_01_geh_original.in
foo_bar_abc_1_02_geh_original.in
foo_bar_abc_1_03_geh_original.in
...
...
foo_bar_abc_1_1000_geh_original.in

I would like to copy (and keep the original files) each file and paste to different names (in the same folder) like, 

foo_bar_abc_1_01_geh_copy.in
foo_bar_abc_1_02_geh_copy.in
foo_bar_abc_1_03_geh_copy.in
...
...
foo_bar_abc_1_1000_geh_copy.in

How can I do this using a simple script?

command-line text-processing cp
Martin Hope
James Mitch
Asked: 2013-02-02 11:58:21 +0800 CST
  • 10

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.)

cp