Ubuntu Equivalent of Unix Command cp -n

Question

A piece of software software I need to install on my Ubuntu Hardy system has a Makefile which includes the command cp -n.

However, I get an error stating that -n is an invalid option.

The command will work on a Mac terminal but I need it to work on Ubuntu.

Does anyone know the equivalent command for Ubuntu?

Answer 1

In FreeBSD (it's like Mac OS X in many ways) the option -n means "Do not overwrite an existing file." I think that in ubuntu you can use the -u flag that means update that copy only if destination is older than the source or if destination is missing.

Answer 2

The -n flag means "no clobbering" (do not replace existing files when copying). You can use cp -i to have cp ask whether a file should be overwritten.

Answer 3

Note that if you're using cp in an automated build script, the bash rewrite would simply be:

cp -n src dest

to

if [ ! -e dest ]; then
    cp -f src dest
fi

Answer 4

cp in GNU coreutils 7.6 certainly has the -n option. Use cp --version to verify the version of cp that is being used.