Copy all contents inside Linux directory include the hidden files and hidden directory using cp command.

The cp command also can be use to copy all files and folder include all the hidden files and hidden directory, this is useful if we want to copy all the directory contents, as example that we want to copy the user home directory for backup.

Step:

• Set shopt dotglobe option to enable.

• Copy hidden files and folder.

• Set shopt dotglobe option to disable.

To demonstrate copying all files including the hidden files and directory, make new directory in the current directory, so that we can use this directory to copy all files and directory to this new directory called test.

[root@fedora ~]# mkdir test

[root@fedora ~]# ls

anaconda-ks.cfg Desktop install.log install.log.syslog mbox passwd test

To copy hidden files or hidden directory in Linux Fedora Core system, you need to set the shopt dotglobe option to enable.

[root@fedora ~]# shopt -s dotglob

On this example, we going to copy and preserve the mode, ownership and timestamps of all directory content of Linux home user directory (home directory for fedoracore5 user) to test/ directory, the -r option is to copy directories recursively

.

[root@fedora ~]# cp -pr /home/fedoracore5/ test/

List all contents of the directory to make sure all files including the hidden files and directory also the hidden directory copied.

[root@fedora ~]# ls -al test/fedoracore5/

total 104

drwxr-xr-x 13 fedoracore5 fedoracore5 4096 May 19 00:29 .

drwxr-xr-x 17 root root 4096 May 19 00:33 ..

-rw-r--r-- 1 fedoracore5 fedoracore5 24 May 19 00:27 .bash_logout

-rw-r--r-- 1 fedoracore5 fedoracore5 191 May 19 00:27 .bash_profile

-rw-r--r-- 1 fedoracore5 fedoracore5 124 May 19 00:27 .bashrc

-rw-r--r-- 1 fedoracore5 fedoracore5 5619 May 19 00:27 .canna

drwxr-xr-x 2 fedoracore5 fedoracore5 4096 May 19 00:29 Desktop

-rw------- 1 fedoracore5 fedoracore5 26 May 19 00:29 .dmrc

drwxr-x--- 2 fedoracore5 fedoracore5 4096 May 19 00:29 .eggcups

-rw-r--r-- 1 fedoracore5 fedoracore5 438 May 19 00:27 .emacs

drwx------ 4 fedoracore5 fedoracore5 4096 May 19 00:29 .gconf

drwx------ 2 fedoracore5 fedoracore5 4096 May 19 00:30 .gconfd

drwxrwxr-x 3 fedoracore5 fedoracore5 4096 May 19 00:29 .gnome

drwx------ 7 fedoracore5 fedoracore5 4096 May 19 00:29 .gnome2

drwx------ 2 fedoracore5 fedoracore5 4096 May 19 00:29 .gnome2_private

drwxr-xr-x 2 fedoracore5 fedoracore5 4096 May 19 00:29 .gstreamer-0.8

-rw-r--r-- 1 fedoracore5 fedoracore5 120 May 19 00:27 .gtkrc

-rw-rw-r-- 1 fedoracore5 fedoracore5 140 May 19 00:29 .gtkrc-1.2-gnome2

-rw------- 1 fedoracore5 fedoracore5 183 May 19 00:29 .ICEauthority

drwxr-xr-x 3 fedoracore5 fedoracore5 4096 May 19 00:27 .kde

drwx------ 3 fedoracore5 fedoracore5 4096 May 19 00:29 .metacity

drwxr-xr-x 3 fedoracore5 fedoracore5 4096 May 19 00:29 .nautilus

-rw------- 1 fedoracore5 fedoracore5 0 May 19 00:29 .recently-used

-rw------- 1 fedoracore5 fedoracore5 497 May 19 00:29 .rhn-applet.conf

-rw------- 1 fedoracore5 fedoracore5 129 May 19 00:29 .Xauthority

-rw-r--r-- 1 fedoracore5 fedoracore5 658 May 19 00:27 .zshrc

[root@fedora ~]#

NOTE:

1 To enable shopt dotglob (option to set):

[root@fedora ~]# shopt -s dotglob

2. To disable shopt dotglob (option to unset):

[root@fedora ~]# shopt -u dotglob

Related:

Copy Linux Files and Directory Using cp Command.

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