Folder copy Linux

Question

What is the command to copy a folder, and its contents, to a location with the following rules:

Possibility 1: if the folder exists already, preform a force merge WITHOUT overwriting existing files.

AND do not overwrite existing files

Possibility 2: If the folder does not exist, create it and copy the contents to the newly created folder

Thanks, Christopher Peterson

It is important to understand that possibility-1 has two forms: the existing files may be older or newer compared to your source folder contents. It this matters, you will need to understand the answers below better...

Mike · Accepted Answer · 2012-01-27 23:17:00Z

up vote 4 down vote accepted

cp <base-target> <base-destination> -r --update

-u, --update copy only when the SOURCE file is newer than the destination file or when the destination file is missing

-R, -r, --recursive copy directories recursively

answered Jan 27 '12 at 23:17

Mike
1562

Note: The '-u' option will over write an existing file that is older than the one being copied. This does not quite follow part of the requirements... check the --no-clobber option if that is not what you want. – nik Jan 28 '12 at 7:08

Fotis · Answer 2 · 2012-01-28 00:24:34Z

up vote 7 down vote

You can use the --no-clobber option.

cp --recursive --no-clobber SOURCE DESTINATION

From the man page:

-R, -r, --recursive
       copy directories recursively
-n, --no-clobber
       do not overwrite an existing file (overrides a previous -i option)

answered Jan 28 '12 at 0:24

Fotis
912

The first answer by @Michael will not do what you want. If the file in the source directory is newer that the destination file it will overwrite it, so requirement 1 will not be met. – Fotis Jan 28 '12 at 0:49

Gus · Answer 3 · 2012-01-27 23:12:14Z

up vote 1 down vote

I think you are looking for the rsync command

answered Jan 27 '12 at 23:12

Gus
1111

I see you awarded the answer already, but you may wish to consider the extra features offered by rsync... serverfault.com/questions/43014/… – Gus Jan 27 '12 at 23:51

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Folder copy Linux

migrated from stackoverflow.com Jan 28 '12 at 0:27

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Folder copy Linux

migrated from stackoverflow.com Jan 28 '12 at 0:27

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