Linux how to copy but not overwrite? [closed]

Answer 1

Consider using rsync.

rsync -a -v --ignore-existing src dst

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As per comments rsync -a -v src dst is not correct because it will update existing files.

Answer 2

cp -n

Is what you want. See the man page.

Answer 3

For people that find that don't have an 'n' option (like me on RedHat) you can use cp -u to only write the file if the source is newer than the existing one (or there isn't an existing one).

[edit] As mentioned in the comments, this will overwrite older files, so isn't exactly what the OP wanted. Use ceving's answer for that.

Answer 4

Alpine linux: Below answer is only for case of single file: in alpine cp -n not working (and false | cp -i ... too) so solution working in my case that I found is:

if [ ! -f env.js ]; then cp env.example.js env.js; fi 

In above example if env.js file not exists then we copy env.example.js to env.js.

Answer 5

Some version of cp do not have the --no-clobber option. In that case:

  echo n | cp -vipr src/* dst

Answer 6

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