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Cp Command Problems Forcing Overwrite Using Cp Command

Posted On Fri Jan 25, 2008 By hostman In Linux Forums And Topics Discussions For Wallpaper Websites Running On Linux Servers Forums

today i was trying to copy a many files and when i send this command: Command:

cp -rf /this/file /to/this/file

i get this prompts: Command:

cp: overwrite '/this/file /to/this/file' ?

when i look at the man pages for cp it says:

-f, --force
              if an existing destination file cannot be opened, remove it  and
              try again

so it shouldn't ask me, so i found out that de defaults on the dedicated linux server we got from www.webune.com has cp as alias. so if you having this same problem, then run this command to see your alias: Command:

alias

OUTPUT:

alias cp='cp -i' alias l.='ls -d .* --color=tty' alias ll='ls -l --color=tty' alias ls='ls --color=tty' alias mv='mv -i' alias rm='rm -i' alias which='alias | /usr/bin/which --tty-only --read-alias --show-dot --show-tilde'

as you can see, i do have an alias with cp so how do you overwrite without prompt? what i need to do is remove that cp alias witht he unalias command so i send this coommand: Command:

unalias cp

so now when you do the alias command, you wont see the cp alias anymore so what happens if your not the admin or dont have access to root, then you can run an unaliased cp command, try Command:

$ /bin/cp -rf /this/file /to/this/file

hope this helps.. thanks for the guys at www.webune.com for their support on this question

Praxis Sat Apr 21, 2012

Yet another customer served, the '\cp -f' option worked a charm on Debian.

meh Mon Dec 05, 2011

love the layout of your instructions. clear and concise!

Frank Thu Nov 17, 2011

You da man!!!!

Ms Wed Nov 16, 2011

Great information, Thank you!!

Georg Mon Oct 17, 2011

Thanks it helped!

talha Wed Aug 10, 2011

it worked thank you for your sharing

John Wed Aug 10, 2011

I know this topic is old but you can also use 'cp'.

Mamun Wed Aug 11, 2010

I want to dont show overwrite commend for cp.

So what i do now.

Overwrite?

maggo Mon Apr 12, 2010

- at - g33kinfo

the command

\cp -rf /this/file /to/this/file

doesn't work on my machinse centos 5.4

any ideas?

g33kinfo Tue Mar 16, 2010

you can also add a \ in front of the command to temporarily disable the alias...

\cp -rf /this/file /to/this/file

g33kin

Oleg Mon Mar 15, 2010

Thanks a lot! I've been wondering why would it ask me all the time to overwrite or not to overwrite the file. I had the same alias so thanks a lot again for the tip!

os3009 Mon Jan 25, 2010

thanks.. very useful tip
i tried every step and worked fine

Sia Tue Nov 03, 2009

nice one, thanks for that. pretty sure debian doesn't have tha alias by default. i'm kinda new to centos, and this was bothering me.

Fletch Mon Jun 01, 2009

or

yes n | cp -rf

Dany Mon Mar 16, 2009

or you can use \ in front of cp -f <source> <destination> command which will temporarly disable the alias.

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Cp Command Problems Forcing Overwrite Using Cp Command

Title: Cp Command Problems Forcing Overwrite Using Cp Command

Description: Cp Command Problems Forcing Overwrite Using Cp Command

Tags: cp ,command ,problems ,forcing ,overwrite ,using ,cp ,command

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Date: Fri Jan 25, 2008
Author hostman Received 18 Replies #2989

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Cp Command Problems Forcing Overwrite Using Cp Command

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