gcp/gcp.1

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.TH GCP 1 "October 14, 2018"
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.SH NAME
gcp \- Advanced command-line file copier
.SH SYNOPSIS
.B gcp
.RI [ OPTIONS ]
.I FILE DEST
.br
.B gcp
.RI [ OPTIONS ]
.I FILE1
.RI [ FILE2 ... ]
.I DEST-DIR
.SH DESCRIPTION
\fBgcp\fP is a file copier, loosely inspired by cp, but with high level
functionalities like:
.IP \(bu 2
transfer progression indication
.IP \(bu
continuous copying when there is an issue: it skips the problematic file and
goes on
.IP \(bu
copy status logging: which files were effectively copied
.IP \(bu
name mangling to handle target filesystem limitations (e.g. removing
incompatible chars like "?" or "*" on FAT filesystems)
.IP \(bu
forced copy serialization: new files to copy are added to a global queue to
avoid hard drive head seeks
.IP \(bu
transfer list management: gcp can save a list of files to copy and reuse it
later
.IP \(bu
approximate option compatibility with cp (approximate because the behaviour is
not exactly the same, see below)
.SH OPTIONS
These programs follow the usual GNU command line syntax, with long
options starting with two dashes (`-').
.PP
A summary of options is included below.
.SS General options
.TP
.B \-h, \-\-help
Show summary of options.
.TP
.B \-V, \-\-version
Show program version and copyright information and exit.
.SS cp-like options
.TP
.B \-f, \-\-force
Overwrite existing files.
.TP
.B \-L, \-\-dereference
Always follow symbolic links in sources.
.TP
.B \-P, \-\-no\-dereference
Never follow symbolic links in sources.
.TP
.B \-p
Same as \fB\-\-preserve=mode,ownership,timestamps\fP
.TP
.B \-\-preserve=<\fIattributes\fP>
Preserve specified attributes. Attributes can be \fImode\fP, \fIownership\fP
and \fItimestamps\fP.
When several attributes are passed, they need to be separated by commas.
Please note that timestamps preservation has some limits, see section
\fILIMITATIONS\fP.
.TP
.B \-r, \-R, \-\-recursive
Copy directories recursively.
.TP
.B \-v, \-\-verbose
Display what is being done.
.SS gcp-specific options
.TP
.B \-\-fix\-filenames=<\fIforce\fP|\fIauto\fP|\fIno\fP>
gcp has the ability to modify the destination file name if the target file
system would not accept the original file name.
Offending characters will be replaced with similar-looking ones.
.IP
This option accept the following values:
.RS
.TP
\fIauto\fP (default)
gcp will attempt to be smart, i.e. detect incompatibilities and fix them as-needed.
.TP
\fIforce\fP
Always fix file names that could cause problems on any known filesystem or OS.
This is useful e.g. with NTFS, see \fINOTE ON NTFS\fP below.
.TP
\fIno\fP
Renaming is disabled entirely.
.RE
.IP
Currently, gcp is only aware of FAT incompatibilities:
\'\\\', \':\', \'*\', \'?\', \'"\', \'<\', \'>\' and \'|\'.
.TP
.B \-\-no\-fs\-fix (DEPRECATED)
Same as \fB\-\-fix\-filenames=no\fP.
This option will be removed in a future release.
.TP
.B \-\-no\-progress
Disable progress bar.
.SS Sources saving
.TP
.B \-\-sources\-save=\fISOURCES\fP
Save the list of source files in a list named \fISOURCES\fP.
.TP
.B \-\-sources\-replace=\fISOURCES\fP
Save the list of source files in a list named \fISOURCES\fP;
the file is overwritten it already exists.
.TP
.B \-\-sources\-load=\fISOURCES\fP
Use the list of source files named \fISOURCES\fP.
.TP
.B \-\-sources\-del=\fISOURCES\fP
Delete the list of source files named \fISOURCES\fP.
.TP
.B \-\-sources\-list
List the names of source file lists.
.TP
.B \-\-sources\-full\-list
List the names of source file lists, including their content.
.SH EXIT STATUS
The exit status can be:
.IP \[bu] 2
\fB0\fP if files have been copied correctly or if another instance of gcp is
already running and will do the copy.
.IP \[bu]
\fB1\fP if at least one file has not been copied, or if something went wrong.
.IP \[bu]
\fB2\fP if all files have been copied but with some issues
.SH LIMITATIONS
Timestamps preservation with \fB\-\-preserve\fP option is limited by the
\fIos\fP Python module on POSIX systems. Currently, Python only returns
timestamps in float format, which is a smaller precision than what POSIX
provides. Progress on this issue can be seen at
http://bugs.python.org/issue11457.
.PP
The \fB\-\-preserve\fP option cannot currently be used without an attribute
list (\fBgcp \-\-preserve foo bar\fP will behave as \fBgcp \-\-preserve=foo
bar\fP). Use the \fB\-p\fP switch instead.
.SH NOTE ON NTFS
NTFS will not enforce the same file name limitations than FAT, but files that
would not be accepted on a FAT filesystem will still cause problems on Windows.
Hence, it is recommended to use \-\-fix-filenames=force when copying to NTFS
(when Windows compatibility is desired, anyway).
.SH SEE ALSO
.BR cp (1).
.br
.SH AUTHOR
gcp was written by Jérôme Poisson <goffi@goffi.org>.
It is currently maintained by Matteo Cypriani <mcy@lm7.fr>.
.PP
This manual page was initially written by Thomas Preud'homme
<robotux@celest.fr> for the Debian project (and may be used by others).