{"id":12385,"date":"2019-03-26T22:03:50","date_gmt":"2019-03-26T22:03:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.appservgrid.com\/paw92\/?p=12385"},"modified":"2019-03-26T22:03:50","modified_gmt":"2019-03-26T22:03:50","slug":"how-to-copy-a-file-to-multiple-directories-in-linux","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.appservgrid.com\/paw92\/index.php\/2019\/03\/26\/how-to-copy-a-file-to-multiple-directories-in-linux\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Copy a File to Multiple Directories in Linux"},"content":{"rendered":"

While learning Linux<\/a>, it is always the norm for newbies to keep on typing several commands to accomplish a simple task. This is understandable especially when one is just getting accustomed to using the terminal.<\/p>\n

However, as you look forward to becoming a Linux power user, learning what I would refer to as \u201cshortcut commands\u201d can significantly reduce time wasting tendencies.<\/p>\n

In this article, we will explain an easy way, using a single command to copy a file into multiple directories in Linux.<\/p>\n

In Linux, the\u00a0cp command<\/a>\u00a0is used to copy files from one directory to another, the easiest syntax for using it is as follows:<\/p>\n

# cp [options\u2026.] source(s) destination<\/pre>\n
Alternatively, you can also use the\u00a0advanced-copy command<\/a>, which shows a progress bar while copying\u00a0large files\/folders in Linux<\/a>.<\/p>\n
Consider the commands below, normally, you would type two different commands to copy the same file into two separate directories as follows:<\/p>\n
# cp -v \/home\/aaronkilik\/bin\/sys_info.sh \/home\/aaronkilik\/test\r\n# cp -v \/home\/aaronkilik\/bin\/sys_info.sh \/home\/aaronkilik\/tmp\r\n<\/pre>\n
\n
\"Copy<\/a><\/p>\n
Copy Files to Multiple Directories<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Assuming that you want to copy a particular file into up to five or more directories, this means you would have to type five or more\u00a0cp commands<\/strong>?<\/p>\n
To do away with this problem, you can employ the\u00a0echo command<\/a>, a\u00a0pipe<\/strong>,\u00a0xargs<\/strong>\u00a0command together with the\u00a0cp<\/strong>command in the form below:<\/p>\n
# echo \/home\/aaronkilik\/test\/ \/home\/aaronkilik\/tmp | xargs -n 1 cp -v \/home\/aaronkilik\/bin\/sys_info.sh\r\n<\/pre>\n
In the form above, the paths to the directories (dir1,dir2,dir3\u2026..dirN) are echoed and piped as input to the\u00a0xargs<\/strong>command where:<\/p>\n
    \n
  1. -n 1<\/code>\u00a0\u2013 tells xargs to use at most one argument per command line and send to the cp command.<\/li>\n
  2. cp<\/code>\u00a0\u2013 used to copying a file.<\/li>\n
  3. -v<\/code>\u00a0\u2013 enables verbose mode to show details of the copy operation.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
    \n
    \"Copy<\/a><\/p>\n
    Copy File to Multiple Locations in Linux<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
    Try to read through the man pages of\u00a0cp<\/code>,\u00a0echo<\/code>\u00a0and\u00a0xargs<\/code>\u00a0commands to find useful and advanced usage information:<\/p>\n
    $ man cp\r\n$ man echo\r\n$ man xargs\r\n<\/pre>\n
    That\u2019s all, you can send us questions in relation to the topic or any feedback through the comment form below. You may also want to read about the\u00a0progress command<\/a>\u00a0which helps to monitor the progress of (cp<\/strong>,\u00a0mv<\/strong>,\u00a0dd<\/strong>,\u00a0tar<\/a>, etc.) commands that are presently running in Linux.<\/p>\n
    Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
    While learning Linux, it is always the norm for newbies to keep on typing several commands to accomplish a simple task. This is understandable especially when one is just getting accustomed to using the terminal. However, as you look forward to becoming a Linux power user, learning what I would refer to as \u201cshortcut commands\u201d … <\/p>\n
    Continue reading “How to Copy a File to Multiple Directories in Linux”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12385","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-linux"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.appservgrid.com\/paw92\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12385","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.appservgrid.com\/paw92\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.appservgrid.com\/paw92\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.appservgrid.com\/paw92\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.appservgrid.com\/paw92\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12385"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.appservgrid.com\/paw92\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12385\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12386,"href":"https:\/\/www.appservgrid.com\/paw92\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12385\/revisions\/12386"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.appservgrid.com\/paw92\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12385"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.appservgrid.com\/paw92\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12385"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.appservgrid.com\/paw92\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12385"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}