How to force cp to overwrite without confirmation

Question

I'm trying to use the cp command and force an overwrite.

I have tried cp -rf /foo/* /bar, but I am still prompted to confirm each overwrite.

favoretti · Accepted Answer · 2018-01-21T11:45:52.927

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You can do yes | cp -rf xxx yyy, but my gutfeeling says that if you do it as root - your .bashrc or .profile has an alias of cp to cp -i, most modern systems (primarily RH-derivatives) do that to root profiles.

You can check existing aliases by running alias at the command prompt, or which cp to check aliases only for cp.

If you do have an alias defined, running unalias cp will abolish that for the current session, otherwise you can just remove it from your shell profile.

You can temporarily bypass an alias and use the non-aliased version of a command by prefixing it with \, e.g. \cp whatever

edited Jan 21 '18 at 11:45

answered Dec 13 '11 at 11:20

favoretti

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Also, be wary -- even if the alias isn't directly written in .bashrc, if *anything* else this file calls ends up calling something else which manipulates the alias for cp, you will run into this behavior. – Jon Mar 10 '14 at 17:42
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By "modern systems" he means RHEL/centos/fedora and perhaps something else, Debian/Ubuntu does not alias cp. I prefer RHEL on the server and used Fedora for nearly a decade, but the community support of Ubuntu and the switch back to Gnome wooed me after Nvidia killed my Fedora install. I'm `¯\_(ツ)_/¯` about it. – Ray Foss Jan 21 '18 at 06:35
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@RayFoss Added a `(primarily RH-derivatives)` remark :) – favoretti Jan 21 '18 at 11:46
after doing `unalias cp` and copying whatever you need to copy, you can set alias back to its default by doing `alias cp='cp -i'`. After which, run `alias cp` so you can verifiy that it's back to default alias. – jaxarroyo Nov 15 '18 at 18:33

score 418 · Answer 2 · answered Dec 13 '11 at 11:20

418

This is probably caused by cp being already aliased to something like cp -i. Calling cp directly should work:

/bin/cp -rf /zzz/zzz/* /xxx/xxx

Another way to get around this is to use the yes command:

yes | cp -rf /zzz/zzz/* /xxx/xxx

answered Dec 13 '11 at 11:20

pgl

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yes, I did unalias cp -i , now its working.. Thank you for your valuable reply. – Thiyagarajan Varadharaj Dec 13 '11 at 11:43
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I love that unix provides the `yes` command. Hilarious. And someday I may use it. – Matthew Leingang Sep 26 '13 at 19:36
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yes it was aliased, nice catch :) You can use \cp to call the original cp, easier than remembering the path /bin/cp – Hugo Zaragoza Nov 09 '15 at 13:52
Yep, that's another way to bypass the alias. Kind of a neat hack! – pgl Nov 09 '15 at 17:46
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This way is more safe. – plusmancn Feb 16 '16 at 14:41
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quick alternative: `\cp` – phil294 Dec 27 '19 at 14:43
another way for using cp without defined alias is using it inside quote sign. example: 'cp' -rf /zzz/* /xxx – mohtashami740 Jan 23 '23 at 08:17

score 152 · Answer 3 · answered Dec 13 '11 at 11:30

152

As some of the other answers have stated, you probably use an alias somewhere which maps cp to cp -i or something similar. You can run a command without any aliases by preceding it with a backslash. In your case, try

\cp -r /zzz/zzz/* /xxx/xxx

The backslash will temporarily disable any aliases you have called cp.

answered Dec 13 '11 at 11:30

Chris

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@zhouji The backlash disables the alias, as stated in my answer. So instead of invoking the alias `cp`, `\cp` will invoke the command `cp`. This appears to be the equivalent of running `command cp`. – Chris Jul 21 '16 at 10:28

codeling · Answer 4 · 2018-11-16T12:08:41.203

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You probably have an alias somewhere, mapping cp to cp -i; because with the default settings, cp won't ask to overwrite. Check your .bashrc, your .profile etc.

See cp manpage: Only when -i parameter is specified will cp actually prompt before overwriting.

You can check this via the alias command:

$ alias
alias cp='cp -i'
alias diff='diff -u'
....

To undefine the alias, use:

$ unalias cp

edited Nov 16 '18 at 12:08

answered Dec 13 '11 at 11:19

codeling

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yes, I did unalias cp -i , now its working.. Thank you for your valuable reply. – Thiyagarajan Varadharaj Dec 13 '11 at 11:43
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it is just "unalias cp" – Krv Perera Nov 15 '18 at 13:22
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also if youre using oh-my-zsh, this the cp -i alias might be coming from common-aliases – Matt Pengelly Jun 14 '20 at 15:09
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in zsh at least, you can override the alias by using ls directly, like so: `\cp -f file.txt overwritten.txt`. I tend to want to maintain the alias for day-to-day usage, but in certain functions and aliases, I may want to overwrite the behavior. – verboze Oct 20 '22 at 17:18

score 67 · Answer 5 · answered Jul 29 '16 at 02:19

67

As other answers have stated, this could happend if cp is an alias of cp -i.

You can append a \ before the cp command to use it without alias.

\cp -fR source target

answered Jul 29 '16 at 02:19

Arnold Roa

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As you said, others have already stated this. Why did this get 45 upvotes? – phil294 Dec 27 '19 at 14:44
@phil294 I guess this is the easiest way without modifying alias or removing the cp alias which may be useful for other usages. `\` Its very useful here. – Arnold Roa Jan 19 '20 at 13:02

score 21 · Answer 6 · answered Feb 17 '20 at 20:20

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So I run into this a lot because I keep cp aliased to cp -iv, and I found a neat trick. It turns out that while -i and -n both cancel previous overwrite directives, -f does not. However, if you use -nf it adds the ability to clear the -i. So:

cp -f /foo/* /bar  <-- Prompt
cp -nf /foo/* /bar <-- No Prompt

Pretty neat huh? /necropost

answered Feb 17 '20 at 20:20

Adam McCormick

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It doesn't overwrite the file, just suppresses the message – IC_ Oct 06 '20 at 04:24
@Herrgott are you saying that `-f` doesn't force an overwrite? If so I would expect a permissions issue. The point of OP was to clear the effect of the `-i` directive making the removal not interactive. – Adam McCormick Oct 07 '20 at 17:59
yes, it doesn't work in my case. `*user@pc-1250* /tmp/ttt: cp -f -- a/* b/` `cp: overwrite 'b/0'? `. If i call it with `-nf` it won't ask for overwrite and won't overwrite (only copies missing files) – IC_ Oct 08 '20 at 06:17
Coreutils v8.31 – IC_ Oct 08 '20 at 06:30
Yeah looks like Coreutils works differently than the `cp` command on my mac. They explicitly ignore `-f` when `-n` is used according to https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#cp-invocation you might try `--remove-destination` instead of `-f` – Adam McCormick Oct 08 '20 at 21:00
it still prompts with `--remove-destination` and it writes its prompt into stderr – IC_ Oct 09 '20 at 09:44
I mean with `-n` first, just using `--remove-destination` instead of `-f`. `-n` is the only way I can find of clearing the `-i` flag – Adam McCormick Oct 11 '20 at 04:43

score 20 · Answer 7 · answered May 13 '13 at 07:05

By default cp has aliase to cp -i. You can check it, type alias and you can see some like:

alias cp='cp -i'
alias l.='ls -d .* --color=auto'
alias ll='ls -l --color=auto'
alias ls='ls --color=auto'
alias mv='mv -i'
alias rm='rm -i'

To solve this problem just use /bin/cp /from /to command instead cp /from /to

score 16 · Answer 8 · answered Oct 21 '21 at 06:39

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The simplest way for me:

yes | cp source destination

answered Oct 21 '21 at 06:39

malcolm

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score 10 · Answer 9 · answered Nov 13 '18 at 13:59

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I found this

'cp' -rf * /data/danalonso_testing/target/

Source: https://superuser.com/questions/358843/how-to-replace-all-the-contents-from-one-folder-with-another-one/358851

answered Nov 13 '18 at 13:59

Daniel Luevano Alonso

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Thanks, working with ubuntu 21.10 ```cp -rf source/source_file.ext target/target_file.ext``` – Ron Michael Apr 11 '22 at 05:37

score 9 · Answer 10 · answered May 19 '14 at 09:28

9

you can use this command as well:

cp -ru /zzz/zzz/* /xxx/xxx

it would update your existing file with the newer one though.

answered May 19 '14 at 09:28

sigeje

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score 9 · Answer 11 · edited Apr 19 '16 at 14:07

9

cp is usually aliased like this

alias cp='cp -i'   # i.e. ask questions of overwriting

if you are sure that you want to do the overwrite then use this:

/bin/cp <arguments here> src dest

edited Apr 19 '16 at 14:07

jotik

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answered Jun 22 '15 at 06:36

user5035029

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score 8 · Answer 12 · answered Apr 13 '18 at 11:39

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cp -u ...
cp --update ...

also works.

answered Apr 13 '18 at 11:39

softwarevamp

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score 6 · Answer 13 · answered Jul 10 '14 at 18:34

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Another way to call the command without the alias is to use the command builtin in bash.

command cp -rf /zzz/zzz/*

answered Jul 10 '14 at 18:34

Steve Buzonas

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score 6 · Answer 14 · answered Apr 20 '17 at 16:03

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-n is "not to overwrite" but his question is totally opposite what you replied for.

To avoid this confirmation you can simply run the cp command wiht absolute path, it will avoid the alias.

/bin/cp sourcefile destination

answered Apr 20 '17 at 16:03

Rohit Rajput

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score 3 · Answer 15 · answered Aug 11 '17 at 07:29

3

If you want to keep alias at the global level as is and just want to change for your script.

Just use:

alias cp=cp

and then write your follow up commands.

answered Aug 11 '17 at 07:29

Ankit Bhatnagar

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score 0 · Answer 16 · answered Jul 25 '16 at 10:11

I simply used unalias to remove the "cp -i" alias, then do the copy, then set back the alias. :

unalias cp  
cp -f foo foo.copy  
alias cp="cp -i"

Not the most beautiful code, but easy to set and efficient. I also check the alias is already set back with a simple

alias |grep cp

score 0 · Answer 17 · answered Sep 08 '22 at 01:58

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If this is a small text file, you may consider this way too:

cat my.cnf > /etc/my.cnf

Not sure about the efficiency or side effects for large or binary files.

answered Sep 08 '22 at 01:58

mercury

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score 0 · Answer 18 · answered Aug 25 '23 at 06:50

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For me, the simpler the better. This way does not show STDOUT:

yes | cp -rf source destination >/dev/null 2>&1

answered Aug 25 '23 at 06:50

Dan Oliva

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score -3 · Answer 19 · edited Apr 19 '16 at 14:02

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It is not cp -i. If you do not want to be asked for confirmation, it is cp -n; for example:

cp -n src dest

Or in case of directories/folders is:

cp -nr src_dir dest_dir

edited Apr 19 '16 at 14:02

Matt

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answered Apr 19 '16 at 12:41

mihaitzateo

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Others were stating that the user-facing cp was symlinked to `cp -i` by the system, meaning they were trying to overcome the default and **force** an overwrite. It sounds like you may have confused that for being the suggested syntax, but `-n` will **prevent** an overwrite. – Abandoned Cart Dec 16 '18 at 21:38

How to force cp to overwrite without confirmation

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