codex-lv2-may-2025

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Lesson: Copy Files and Directories Using cp

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Step 1: Copy a File

• Suppose you have a file named quotes.txt and want to make a copy in the thesis folder with a new name:

  cp quotes.txt thesis/quotations.txt
  

• Check that both files exist:

  ls quotes.txt thesis/quotations.txt
  

  Output:

  quotes.txt   thesis/quotations.txt
  

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Step 2: Copy a Directory

• Copy the entire thesis directory and its contents to a new folder called thesis_backup:

  cp -r thesis thesis_backup
  

• Confirm the contents of both directories:

  ls thesis thesis_backup
  

  Output:

  thesis:
  quotations.txt
  
  thesis_backup:
  quotations.txt
  

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Step 3: What Happens If You Omit -r

• Try copying a directory without the -r option:

  cp thesis thesis_backup
  

  This will result in an error:

  cp: -r not specified; omitting directory 'thesis'
  

• Use -r when copying directories to ensure everything inside is copied.

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Step 4: Rename a File with a Typo

• You created a file called statstics.txt, but realize it’s misspelled. Here are some ways to fix it:

  mv statstics.txt statistics.txt     # Renames the file
  cp statstics.txt statistics.txt     # Copies the file under a new name
  

• mv is the correct command if you want to fix the name without keeping the original.

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Step 5: Predicting Output with Move and Copy

Given this sequence of commands:

pwd
# /Users/jamie/data

ls
# proteins.dat

mkdir recombined
mv proteins.dat recombined/
cp recombined/proteins.dat ../proteins-saved.dat
ls

Final output of ls:

proteins-saved.dat  recombined

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Reflection Questions

• Why does cp require -r when working with folders?
• When would you use cp versus mv?

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