Friday, February 27, 2009

Copy Files As Perfect Backups in Another Directory

Copy Files As Perfect Backups in Another Directory

cp -a

You might be thinking right now that cp would be useful for backing up files, and that is certainly true. With a few lines in a bash shell script, however, cp can be an effective way to back up various files and directories. The most useful option in this case would be the -a option (or --archive), which is also equivalent to combining several options: -dpR (or --no-dereference --preserve --recursive). Another way of thinking about it is that -a ensures that cp doesn't follow symbolic links (which could grossly balloon your copy), preserves key file attributes such as owner and timestamp, and recursively follows subdirectories.


source: scott grannemann

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