Linux copy directory recursively

Linux – How To Copy a Folder [ Command Line Option ]

How To Copy a Folder with cp Command

The cp command is a Linux command for copying files and directories. The syntax is as follows:

Linux cp command examples

In this example copy /home/vivek/letters/ folder and all its files to /usb/backup/ directory:
cp -avr /home/vivek/letters /usb/backup
Where,

• -a : Preserve the specified attributes such as directory an file mode, ownership, timestamps, if possible additional attributes: context, links, xattr, all.
• -v : Verbose output.
• -r : Copy directories recursively.

More examples of cp command to copy folders on Linux

Copy a folder called /tmp/conf/ to /tmp/backup/:
$ cp -avr /tmp/conf/ /tmp/backup/
Sample outputs:

Fig.01: cp command in action

Use Linux rsync Command to copy a folder

You can also use rsync command which is a fast and extraordinarily versatile file copying tool. It can make copies across the network. The syntax is as follows for the rsync command

To backup my home directory, which consists of large files and mail folders to /media/backup, enter:
$ rsync -avz /home/vivek /media/backup
I can copy a folder to remote machine called server1.cyberciti.biz as follows:
$ rsync -avz /home/vivek/ server1.cyberciti.biz:/home/backups/vivek/
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• -a : Archive mode i.e. copy a folder with all its permission and other information including recursive copy.
• -v : Verbose mode.
• -z : With this option, rsync compresses the file data as it is sent to the destination machine, which reduces the amount of data being transmitted something that is useful over a slow connection.

Fig.02: rsync command in action

Conclusion

You just learned how to copy a folder on a Linux like operating system using the cp command and rsync command. In conclusion, use rsync for a network folder transfer and cp for a local disk transfer.

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How do I copy folder with files to another folder in Unix/Linux? [closed]

Want to improve this question? Update the question so it’s on-topic for Stack Overflow.

Closed 8 years ago .

I am having some issues to copy a folder with files in that folder into another folder. Command cp -r doesn’t copy files in the folder.

3 Answers 3

The option you’re looking for is -R .

• If destination doesn’t exist, it will be created.
• -R means copy directories recursively . You can also use -r since it’s case-insensitive.
• To copy everything inside the source folder (symlinks, hidden files) without copying the source folder itself use -a flag along with trailing /. in the source (as per @muni764 ‘s / @Anton Krug ‘s comment):

You are looking for the cp command. You need to change directories so that you are outside of the directory you are trying to copy.

If the directory you’re copying is called dir1 and you want to copy it to your /home/Pictures folder:

Linux is case-sensitive and also needs the / after each directory to know that it isn’t a file.

is a special character in the terminal that automatically evaluates to the current user’s home directory. If you need to know what directory you are in, use the command pwd .

When you don’t know how to use a Linux command, there is a manual page that you can refer to by typing:

at a terminal prompt.

Also, to auto complete long file paths when typing in the terminal, you can hit Tab after you’ve started typing the path and you will either be presented with choices, or it will insert the remaining part of the path.

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How can I copy the contents of a folder to another folder in a different directory using terminal?

I am trying to copy the contents of a folder to another folder in a different directory using terminal.

Would somebody be able to provide me an example of the command line syntax required to achieve this?

8 Answers 8

You can copy the content of a folder /source to another existing folder /dest with the command

The -a option is an improved recursive option, that preserve all file attributes, and also preserve symlinks.

The . at end of the source path is a specific cp syntax that allow to copy all files and folders, included hidden ones.

An alternate is rsync :

The advantages of rsync are:

1. After the initial sync, it will then copy only the files that have changed.
2. You can use it over a network, convenient for files in $HOME, especially config files.

Lets say you have a folder called folder1 in your

, inside folder1 is 1 file called file1 and 2 folders called sub1 and sub2 each with other files and folders inside them.

To copy all the contents of

/new_folder1 you would use

new_folder1 would then contain all the files and folders from folder1 .

cp is the command to copy using a terminal, -r makes it recursively (so, current directory + further directories inside current)

/folder1 is the origin folder,

/new_folder1 is the destination folder for the files/folders inside the origin.

sign). Maybe because the destination folder was in /opt, which resides in another file system. And thank you Portablejim to remember the hidden file thing!

/new_folder1/folder1 instead of copying the contents over.

Simple example.

Copy the directory dir_1 and its contents (files) into directory dir_2:

Copy only the contents (files) of dir_1 into directory dir_2:

_files_ is a placeholder for the actual files located in the directory.

Check this http://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/copy-folder-linux-command-line/ for more information on copying folder. Hope this helps.

cp is a Linux command for copying files and directories. The syntax is as follows:

In this example copy /home/vivek/letters folder and all its files to /usb/backup directory:

-a : Preserve the specified attributes such as directory an file mode, ownership, timestamps, if possible additional attributes: context, links, xattr, all.

-v : Explain what is being done.

-r : Copy directories recursively. Example

Copy a folder called /tmp/conf to /tmp/backup:

I like this command

Some of the commonly used options in rsync command are listed below:

• -v, –verbose: Verbose output
• -q, –quiet: suppress message output
• -a, –archive: archive files and directory while synchronizing ( -an equal to following options -rlptgoD)
• -r, –recursive: sync files and directories recursively
• -b, –backup: take the backup during synchronization
• -u, –update: don’t copy the files from source to destination if destination files are newer
• -l, –links: copy symlinks as symlinks during the sync
• -n, –dry-run: perform a trial run without synchronization
• -e, –rsh=COMMAND: mention the remote shell to use in rsync
• -z, –compress: compress file data during the transfer
• -h, –human-readable: display the output numbers in a human-readable format
• –progress: show the sync progress during transfer

If there are two folders: (with write permission)

If you are inside the folder called PORTAL where you want to copy all content of another folder say DATA at the same level then you will do

vimal@vimal-D3H:/var/www/html/PORTAL$ cp -a ../DATA/. .

You have to notice 2 dots. Last dot says copy here in present folder

one following /DATA/. says that all the CONTENTS inside DATA folder to be copied, and not the DATA folder itself.

If you remove this trailing «.» from /DATA/

then whole DATA folder will be copied inside PORTAL(from where you are coping).

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Can scp copy directories recursively?

Currently I can only copy a single .tar file. But how can I copy directories recursively with scp ?

10 Answers 10

• -r means recursive
• -p preserves modification times, access times, and modes from the original file.

Note: This creates the sourcedirectory inside /path thus the files will be in /path/sourcedirectory

While the previous answers are technically correct, you should also consider using rsync instead. rsync compares the data on the sending and receiving sides with a diff mechanism so it doesn’t have to resend data that was already previously sent.

If you are going to copy something to a remote machine more than once, use rsync . Actually, it’s good to use rsync every time because it has more controls for things like copying file permissions and ownership and excluding certain files or directories. In general:

will synchronize a local directory with a remote directory. If you run it a second time and the contents of the local directory haven’t changed, no data will be transferred — much more efficient than running scp and copying everything every time.

Also, rsync allows you to recover from interrupted transfers very easily, unlike scp .

Finally, modern versions of rsync by default run over ssh, so if scp is already working, rsync should pretty much be a drop-in replacement.

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Linux copy directory and contents from remote to local & vice versa

Table of Contents

In this tutorial I will share commands and examples to cover below scenarios:

• Unix and Linux copy directory and contents using rsync remote to local server
• Unix and Linux copy directory and contents using rsync to remote server
• Unix and Linux copy directory and files using scp from local to remote server
• Unix and Linux copy directory and files using scp from remote to local server
• scp recursive to copy directory and contents in Unix and Linux
• Unix and Linux copy file from ssh to local server

There are various commands available in Linux to copy directory and contents from one server to another in Linux. I have also written another article on similar topic with 5 commands to copy files from one server to another in Linux

In this article I will share the commands and arguments in Linux copy directory and files using scp from local to remote server, scp from remote to local server, rsync remote to local and rsync to remote server in Linux.

Copy directory and files from local to remote server

• You can use either scp or rsync to copy folder and files from local to ssh or copy folder and files from ssh to local within in the same or different directory.
• By default copy files and folders happen sequentially. If you wish to copy directory and contents in parallel then you must use pscp or pssh tool.
• You can also configure password less copy from local to remote or from remote to local, so you don’t have to provide password every time you try to copy files and folder between servers. This is very useful for automation.

1. Linux copy directory and files with scp recursive

• scp is a secure remote copy tool which is used to copy directory and contents between multiple Linux server.
• To copy only files from local to remote server, you do not need any extra argument with scp.
• But to copy directory and contents we need scp recursive using » -r » argument
• If you use scp without ‘ -r ‘ then the tool can only copy files (and not directories) from local to remote server or vice versa.

1.1: Keep «same» directory name with scp from local to remote server

In this scp syntax, we will keep the same directory name after copying directory and its contents to remote server

scp syntax:

Let me copy all files in directory /tmp/deepak from local to remote server under /home/temp/ on the remote server.

Below are the /tmp/deepak directory content on my localhost , so I will copy all files in directory /tmp/deepak with scp recursive to remote server.

So next using scp recursive I will copy directory and contents from local to remote Linux server

In this example, the directory name will be same on local and remote server as we are not giving » / » after giving the directory name on localhost with scp (as highlighted).

The ssh copy file from local to remote was successful. Next validate the transfer on the remote server

1.2: Change directory name with scp from local to remote server

If you wish to copy directory /tmp/deepak to remote server using a different directory name then use the below syntax

scp syntax:

Here if you observe the scp syntax, I have provided » /* » at the end of directory name in localhost. So here we copy all files in directory /tmp/deepak and store it under /home/temp/rahul/ on remote server

So you see this forward slash (/) is very important for scp from local to remote server.

Execute the command in below format

All files under directory /tmp/deepak are successfully copied to remote server. Validate the content on server2 node.

2. Copy folder and files using rsync from local to remote server

• rsync is another better alternative to copy directory and contents from local to remote server in Linux and Unix.
• It is famous for its delta-transfer algorithm, which reduces the amount of data sent over the network by sending only the differences between the source files and the existing files in the destination.
• Rsync is widely used for backups and mirroring and as an improved copy command for everyday use
• Rsync finds files that need to be transferred using a «quick check» algorithm (by default) that looks for files that have changed in size or in last-modified time.

2.1: Keep «same» directory name with rsync from local to remote server

In this rsync syntax, we will change the directory name after copying directory and its contents to remote server. The logic remains the same for both scp and rsync

rsync syntax:

In this example we will use rsync to copy directory and contents from ( /tmp/deepak ) to remote host under /home/temp

Follow rsync man page for more details. Here,

After rsync copy, validate the transfer on the remote server. So the directory name is same on local and remote server after transfer.

2.2: Change directory name with rsync from local to remote server

Next we will use rsync to copy directory and contents of /tmp/deepak to a different folder on the remote server inside /home/temp/rahul .

So we will change the directory name from deepak on localhost to rahul on remote server

rsync syntax:

Next execute the command in the below syntax

After the transfer, validate the content on the remote node

Copy directory and files from remote to local server

We can use the same tool scp recursive and rsync to copy directory and contents from remote to local server in Linux and Unix. Although the syntax to copy from ssh to local will vary for rsync and scp

1. Linux copy directory and files with scp recursive from remote to local server

We will again use scp recursive to perform scp from remote to local server in Linux and Unix

To use scp recursive we must use scp with -r argument.

1.1: Keep «same» directory name with scp from remote to local server

Check the scp syntax to copy files from remote to local server for more details

Syntax for scp:

To scp from remote to local server, below is the content on my remote host ( server2 ) under /home/temp/deepak which I wish to copy on my localhost ( server1 ) under /tmp/deepak

Below is the command to copy directory and contents using scp from remote to local server in Linux and Unix

NOTE that I have not provided a forward slash (/) after the source directory to keep the same directory name after copy from remote to local server.

Validate the content on localhost server1 under /tmp/ where we had copied the content. As you see we have directory deepak now on our localhost ( server1 )

1.2: Change directory name with scp from remote to local server

To copy directory and contents from remote to local server with different directory name then you must use forward slash carefully
We must also provide a local directory in the source path on ( server1 ) under which you want to copy files and folders from remote server ( server2 )

Syntax for scp:

We will use this syntax in our next scp example:

Next verify the content on localhost server1 under /tmp/rahul . So the content of directory deepak from server2 is successfully copied under rahul on localhost

2. Copy folder and files using rsync from remote to local server

We can also use rsync to copy directories and contents from remote to local server using the same arguments but different syntax

To copy files and folders from remote to local, you must execute rsync on localhost i.e. server1 for our environment

2.1: Keep «same» directory name with rsync from remote to local server

Notice the rsync syntax carefully, we have not used forward slash (/) in the source path, so the entire directory and contents will be copied

Similarly you can use below rsync command to copy directory from remote to local server

Syntax for rsync:

Using below command you can folder from remote to local server

Verify the content of /tmp/deepak on server1

2.2: Change directory name with rsync from remote to local server

Now to change the directory name or store the directory contents to a different folder from remote to local server ( server1 ) we must use forward slash in the source path from remote server ( server2 )

Check the rsync syntax, as you see I have defined a forward slash in the source path from ( server2 )

Syntax for rsync:

In this rsync example I will copy all directory files from /home/temp/deepak/ on ( server2 ) to /tmp/rahul on localhost ( server1 )

Validate the content on server1 under /tmp/rahul

So the transfer was successful, I hope I was able to explain the importance of forward slash while copying all files in directories for proper naming.

Lastly I hope the steps from the article to perform scp from local to remote server and scp from remote to local server with examples on Linux was helpful. So, let me know your suggestions and feedback using the comment section.

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4 thoughts on “Linux copy directory and contents from remote to local & vice versa”

Hello,
I think there is a mistake in the content you provided. I noticed that there is wrong command in copying folder from remote to local system using rsync command. You can go through that and let me know if I’m correct.

Thanks for highlighting, the syntax reference was incorrect. I have corrected it.

Thanks for the tutorial. But I think “/” is forward slash, NOT backslash.

I always get confuse with this 🙂
Thank you for highlighting this. I have corrected the article.

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