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COPY(1) 		     Schily's USER COMMANDS			 COPY(1)

NAME
     copy - makes copies of file(s)

SYNOPSIS
     copy -i [ options ]

     copy with prompt for filenames

     copy [ options ] from_file to_file

     copy a single file

     copy [ options ] from1...fromn targetdir

     copy multiple files into one directory that must exist

DESCRIPTION
     Copy  makes  a  copy of the first file and gives it the second filename. If
     the first file does not exist or cannot be opened or  if  the  second  file
     cannot  be  created  or opened, copy prints an error message. If the second
     file already exists, it is overwritten.

     Copying directories, devices, fifos and the like  are  permitted,	but  are
     treated differently. Copying a directory just creates the target directory.
     Copying  a  device just creates a new device node. Copying a fifo just cre-
     ates a new fifo.

     To copy multiple source files to a target directory: list the source  files
     on  the  command  line  followed by the name of the target directory.  Copy
     verifies that the last named file is indeed a directory  before  attempting
     the copy or reporting an error.

OPTIONS
     -force-hole
	    Try  to  enforce  the  target  filee to be a sparse file. To achieve
	    this, copy reads the file in 512 Byte blocks. If a block  only  con-
	    tains null bytes, no data is written to the target file. This option
	    works  if  the  filesystem	for the target file allows one to create
	    sparse files, regardless of the state of the source file.

     -i     Interactive.  If file type arguments are present, copy  will  prompt
	    for  confirmation whenever the copy would overwrite an existing tar-
	    get.  A "y" answer means that the copy should  proceed.   Any  other
	    answer prevents copy from overwriting target.  If no file type argu-
	    ments  are	present,  copy will prompt: From: To: until either a ^C,
	    ^D, or an empty line is typed.

     -q     Query.  Requests confirmation before each file; "y" or "yes"  to  do
	    the copy, anything else to skip the file.

     -R     POSIX  recursive.  If the from file is a directory, copy creates not
	    only the target directory but recursively copies  all  subfiles.  If
	    the  target directory exists, a directory type from parameter always
	    results in a concatenation of the last path name  component  of  the
	    from parameter and the target directory name.

	    If	the target directory does not exist in POSIX recursive copy mode
	    and there are only two directory type parameters, the target  direc-
	    tory  is  created and the content of the from directory is copied to
	    the target directory.  This is different from the case when the tar-
	    get directory exists.

     -r     Recursive.	Same as -R but if there are only two directory type path
	    parameters, the content of the from directory will	be  copied  into
	    target directory.

     -setowner
	    Setowner.	Attempts  to  copy the original user id (only the system
	    administrator can do this).

     -setgrp
	    Setgroup.  Attempts to copy the original group id (only  the  system
	    administrator can do this).

     -s     Attempts  to  copy	both,  the  owner- ant the group-id of the files
	    (only the system administrator can do this).

     -olddate, -o
	    Olddate Attempts to copy the original date and time.

     -p     Attempt to preserve file permissions, file owner id, file  group  id
	    and  file  times.	If copy fails to set the owner id or group id on
	    the new file, the permissions S_ISUID and S_ISGID are cleared.

     -sparse
	    Attempt to preserve holes in sparse  regular  files.   On  platforms
	    that support SEEK_DATA and SEEK_HOLE lseek(2) whence values, copy is
	    able to efficiently and correctly restore all hole positions.

     -v     Verbose Reports the result of the copy.

NOTES
     If  the  target  file  does not exist, copy attempts to retain the original
     user access modes even if -p has not been specified. Copying a device  file
     results in only copying the device file entry, not in reading the device.

     When  copying  an entire directory (using the -r option), the target direc-
     tory should not exist. Otherwise, a subdirectory with the same name as  the
     source directory is created and used as the destination for all the files.

     No  slash will be accepted in the interactive mode if the environment vari-
     able 'SLASH=off' is set.

BUGS
     None currently known.

     Mail bugs and suggestions	to  schilytools@mlists.in-berlin.de  or  open  a
     ticket at https://codeberg.org/schilytools/schilytools/issues

     The mailing list archive may be found at:

     https://mlists.in-berlin.de/mailman/listinfo/schilytools-mlists.in-berlin.de

AUTHORS
     Joerg Schilling and the schilytools project authors.

SOURCE DOWNLOAD
     The  source code for copy is included in the schilytools project and may be
     retrieved from the schilytools project at Codeberg at:

     https://codeberg.org/schilytools/schilytools/

     The download directory is:

     https://codeberg.org/schilytools/schilytools/releases

Joerg Schilling 		   2022/09/09				 COPY(1)

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