Copy (command)

In computing,   is a command in various operating systems. The command copies computer files from one directory to another.

Overview
Generally, the command copies files from one location to another. It is used to make copies of existing files, but can also be used to combine (concatenate) multiple files into target files. The destination defaults to the current working directory. If multiple source files are indicated, the destination must be a directory, or an error will result. The command can copy in text mode or binary mode; in text mode,  will stop when it reaches the EOF character; in binary mode, the files will be concatenated in their entirety, ignoring EOF characters.

Files may be copied to devices. For example,  outputs file to the screen console. Devices themselves may be copied to a destination file, for example,  takes the text typed into the console and puts it into FILE, stopping when EOF (Ctrl+Z) is typed.

Implementations
The command is available in DEC RT-11, OS/8, RSX-11, Intel ISIS-II, iRMX 86, DEC TOPS-10, TOPS-20, OpenVMS, MetaComCo TRIPOS, Heath Company HDOS, Zilog Z80-RIO, Microware OS-9, DOS, DR FlexOS, IBM/Toshiba 4690 OS, TSL PC-MOS, HP MPE/iX, IBM OS/2, Microsoft Windows, Datalight ROM-DOS, ReactOS, SymbOS and DexOS.

The  command is supported by Tim Paterson's SCP 86-DOS. Under IBM PC DOS/MS-DOS it is available since version 1. A more advanced copy command is called.

The equivalent Unix command is, the CP/M command is. The command is analogous to the Stratus OpenVOS  command.

Example for DOS
copy letter.txt [destination]

Files may be copied to device files (e.g.  sends the file to the printer on lpt1.   would output to stdout, like the   command. Note that   will concatenate the files and output them as  . Which is just like the   command). It can also copy files between different disk drives.

There are two command-line switches to modify the behaviour when concatenating files:


 * Text mode - This copies the text content of the file, stopping when it reaches the EOF character.

copy /a doc1.txt + doc2.txt doc3.txt copy /a *.txt doc3.txt


 * Binary mode - This concatenates files in their entirety, ignoring EOF characters.

copy /b image1.jpg + image2.jpg image3.jpg