Talk:Cp (Unix)

User perspective only
This article is from a user perspective only. There are several important aspects of cp that should be covered here but are not, perhaps because those who are qualified to contribute here either don't have the time or simply can't be bothered.

Section Removed
The section that I removed stated that Unix was file extension-agnostic, then went on to show how cp could be used to change a file extension, to "make" a .txt file into a shell script. This was contradictory, and besides, it's not really the point of cp. grendel|khan 03:54, 2004 Dec 29 (UTC)
 * But it had a point, didn't it? Given the historical context at the time? Given that Unix file systems don't really have file extensions per se? Or is that over your head? You don't have to change a 'file extension' to make it an executable shell script anyway, or didn't you know that either?

AIX specific?
Why is this specialized for a fairly obscure and unpopular Unix? Shouldn't we change this to refer to GNU, or Linux, or a BSD at least? --maru (talk) contribs 02:32, 6 March 2006 (UTC)


 * AIX is neither obscure, nor unpopular. In fact, AIX, HP-UX, and Solaris have been the top three commercial Unix versions for many years. See the chart on page 3 of this survey. Linux has gained great popularity in the last 5 or 6 years. If you feel a Linux version of cp is more popular, be bold and update the article. Gbeeker 14:57, 6 March 2006 (UTC)


 * For a commercial Unix, it may not be obscure, but commercial Unixes certainly are. I think I will change this article to refer to GNU's cp, since that is used vastly more than AIX's. --maru (talk) contribs 17:20, 6 March 2006 (UTC)
 * Not true about AIX. Perhaps in your world, but take a look around at what IBM and AIX represent.


 * Here is a radical thought, maybe the article should be vendor neutral. I mean are all the obscure GNU (or AIX for that matter) extensions to cp really encyclopedic anyway?  --121.217.118.194 (talk) 20:52, 29 January 2008 (UTC)

copy commands

 * this article specifically discusses the unix cp command.


 * cp -- copy files; can concatenate files
 * cpio -- copy an entire directory structure from one place to another
 * dd -- copy streams, files, or devices in whole or part
 * cat -- concatenate and display files
 * head -- display /copy the first part of a file
 * tail -- display /copy the last part of a file


 * Neither cat nor head nor tail copy files, although the output can be redirected which is true of all programs.
 * cat effectively copies. That's what the name means. As to whether 'all programs' can do that is a bit OTT.

DG12 (talk) 18:33, 6 March 2011 (UTC)


 * COPY -- copy files or sets of files, binary or text mode, can concatenate files
 * XCOPY -- eXtended version of COPY, for copying file structures
 * XXCOPY -- further extended commercial program
 * ROBOCOPY -- further extended version, included in Vista

Other specialized programs are used to split large files into pieces and then put the pieces back together.

There are no good standard programs to extract an arbitrary piece of a file into another file. dd can be used, but requires setting blocksize to 1, which is very inefficient. In Windows, the obscure program CPART can be used.

grep and awk are powerful *nix programs for looking for patterns in a file.

-69.87.200.198 00:26, 17 October 2007 (UTC)
 * So? Stay on topic (if you understand the topic).