If I execute the following command:
cp -R /myfiles /mydestination
If myfiles
contains several sub-directories and files, in what order will they be copied?
For example, directories might be named 0123a, 9993c, myfolder, xfolder
.
They are not copied in alphabetical order OR in date order OR in the order they appear when using a standard ls
command as far as I can tell, so what actually does determine the order?
Edit: I am trying to determine the order that the cp command uses in order to determine how far along my copy command made it before it stopped. For example, I was hoping to be able to determine it copied 3 of the 4 directories successfully.
ls
command by default sorts the directory contents before displaying them. What you see printed byls
is not the actual directory enumeration order.ls -U
to get the unsorted directory order. This should be the order thatcp
uses. If you need more control over progress, order, etc., perhapscp
is not the tool for the job.