How to copy with cp to include hidden files and hidden directories and their contents?

Question

How can I make cp -r copy absolutely all of the files and directories in a directory

Requirements:

• Include hidden files and hidden directories.
• Be one single command with an flag to include the above.
• Not need to rely on pattern matching at all.

My ugly, but working, hack is:

cp -r /etc/skel/* /home/user
cp -r /etc/skel/.[^.]* /home/user

How can I do this all in one command without the pattern matching? What flag do I need to use?

Answer 1

Don't specify the files:

cp -r /etc/skel /home/user

(Note that /home/user must not exist already, or else it will create /home/user/skel.)

Answer 2

Lets say you created the new folder (or are going to create one) and want to copy the files to it after the folder is created

mkdir /home/<new_user>
cp -r /etc/skel/. /home/<new_user>

This will copy all files/folder recursively from /etc/skel in to the already existing folder created on the first line.

Answer 3

bash itself has a good solution, it has a shell option, You can cp, mv and so on.:

shopt -s dotglob # for considering dot files (turn on dot files)

and

shopt -u dotglob # for don't considering dot files (turn off dot files)

above solution standards of bash

NOTE:

shopt # without argument show status of all shell options
-u # abbrivation of unset 
-s # abbrivation of set

Answer 4

If your source and target directory have the same name, even if target directory exists, you can simply type:

cp -R /etc/skel /home/

This will copy the /etc/skel directory into /home/, including hidden files and directories.

Eventually, you can copy the directory and rename it in a single line :

cp -R /etc/skel /home/ && mv /home/skel /home/user