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linuxbashcp

Linux how to copy but not overwrite?

I want to cp a directory but I do not want to overwrite any existing files even it they are older than the copied files. And I want to do it completely noninteractive as this will be a part of a Crontab Bash script. Any ideas?

Solution

  • Taken from the man page:

    -n, --no-clobber
              do not overwrite an existing file (overrides a previous -i option)

    Example:

    cp -n myoldfile.txt mycopiedfile.txt