Editing Cp (Unix) (section)

== Modes ==

The command has three principal modes of operation as inferred from command-line arguments.<ref>{{Cite web | url=https://www.man7.org/linux/man-pages/man1/cp.1.html | title=Cp(1) - Linux manual page }}</ref>

===Copy file===
For a path to an existing file followed by a path that does ''not'' refer to an existing directory, the file at the first path is copied to the second path.

 cp [-fHip][--] sourcefile targetfile

===Copy files to directory===
For one or more paths to existing files followed by a path to an existing directory, the files are copied to the directory.

 cp [-fHip] [--] sourcefile... targetdirectory

===Copy directory===
With the recurse command-line option, typically {{code|-r}}, a path to an existing directory and a second path, the files of the directory are copied to the second path. If the second path refers to nothing, the source directory is copied to that path. If the second path refers to an existing directory, the source directory is copied into the destination directory as a subdirectory.

 cp -r|-R [-fHip] [--] sourcedirectory... targetdirectory