Option Flags
- f (force) – specifies removal of the target file if it cannot be opened for write operations. The removal precedes any copying performed by the cp command.
- L (dereference) – makes the cp command follow symbolic links (symlinks) so that the destination has the target file rather than a symlink to the target.
- i (interactive) – prompts you with the name of a file to be overwritten. This occurs if the TargetDirectory or TargetFile parameter contains a file with the same name as a file specified in the SourceFile or SourceDirectory parameter. If you enter y or the locale's equivalent of y, the cp command continues. Any other answer prevents the cp command from overwriting the file.
- p (preserve) – the p flag preserves the following characteristics of each source path in the corresponding target: The time of the last data modification and the time of the last access, the ownership (only if it has permissions to do this), and the file permission bits.
- R or r (recursive) – copy directories recursively
Read more about this topic: Cp (Unix)
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