In the world of Linux, copying folders is not an uncommon operation. Often, we may need to copy the entire folder and everything below it to a new location. There are several ways to copy folders in Linux, and one of the simple and common ways is to use the cp command. Below, I will detail the steps on how to copy a folder in Linux using the cp command.
1.Open Terminal.
On Linux, open the Terminal app, which will take you to the command line interface. The terminal can be quickly opened by pressing the Ctrl + Alt + T key combination.
2.Navigate to the source folder.
Before you start copying, you need to navigate to the source folder you want to copy. Using the cd command, you can easily switch to the folder location you need to copy. For example, if your source folder is in the Home User Source folder, you can use the following command to get into that folder
cd /home/user/source_folder
3.Duplicate folders.
Once you're in the source folder, you can use the cp command to duplicate the folder. The basic syntax is as follows:
cp -r
In this command, the -r option stands for recursive copy, meaning that the cp command will copy the entire folder and all its contents. is the path to the source folder, which is the destination you want the folder to be copied to.
For example, let's say you want to copy the source folder to the home user destination folder, you can use the following command:
cp -r source_folder /home/user/destination_folder
4.Wait for the replication to complete.
Once you have run the cp command, it will start copying the folder and its contents. You may need to wait a while for the replication to complete. You can check the progress in the terminal and see the copied process.
5.Verify that the replication was successful.
Once the copy is complete, you can check the destination folder to make sure the copy was successful. You can use the ls command to list the contents of the destination folder to confirm that the folder and its contents have been copied successfully:
ls -l /home/user/destination_folder
This command will display a list of files and subfolders in the destination folder. If you see that the contents of the source folder are also listed in the list, then congratulations, the copy operation has completed successfully.
When using the cp command, make sure you have sufficient permissions to read the source folder and write to the destination folder. If you don't have sufficient permissions, you may need to run the cp command as an administrator using the sudo command. This may make it easier for you to do so. In addition, if you only need to copy the structure of the folder and do not need to copy the contents of the files, you can first use the mkdir command to create an empty destination folder, and then use the cp command to copy the directory structure of the original folder. This can help you save time and space.
Okay, the above is the knowledge I want to share with you today, and those who have gained should remember to share it with their friends around them to learn together