copy all files and dirs including hidden ones

[loy4lplay]

Hello,

I would like to copy all files and dirs (includding hidden files) on a HP-UX 11.31 box, what would be the right command since cp -pR does not copy them all?

Thanks

P.S. This thread has been moved from General to HP-UX > languages. - Hp Forum Moderator

[Bill Hassell]

>> since cp -pR does not copy them all?

cp will copy what you tell it to copy.

However, if you are using * as a way to specify files and directories, you need to read about Filename Generation and Pattern Matching in your shell manual. The * character will not match any file or directory that starts with the . (period or dot character). If you need to copy everything in a directory, don't use * but instead use . which means "everything in this current directory", like this:

# cd /tmp/olddir
# cp -rp . /var/tmp/newdir

 Or better yet, just specify the directory to be copied:

# cp -rp /tmp/olddir /var/tmp

And the directory olddir will be compleely copied to /var/tmp.