Editing Cp (Unix) (section)

== Examples ==
This copies file '''prog.c''' to file '''prog.bak'''. If '''prog.bak''' does not already exist, this creates it. If it does exist, its content will be replaced.

 cp prog.c prog.bak

This copies the files '''jones''' and '''smith''' into the pre-existing directory '''clients'''.

 cp jones smith clients

This copies file '''smith''' to a file named '''smith.jr'''. Instead of creating a file with the current date and time stamp, the command copies the date and time from the original. The copy also receives other metadata from the original including access control protection.

 cp -p smith smith.jr

This reclusively copies the directory '''clients''', including its files, subdirectories, and the files in those subdirectories, to a new directory '''customers/clients'''. 

 cp -R clients customers

Some implementations behave differently in recursive mode, depending on the termination of the directory path. Using <code>cp -R clients/ customers</code> in the GNU implementation behaves as above. However, with a BSD implementation, it copies the ''contents'' of the '''clients''' directory, instead of the directory '''clients''' itself. The same happens in both GNU and BSD implementations if the path of the source directory ends in . or .. (with or without trailing slash).