plan9 man page for cp

CP(1)							      General Commands Manual							     CP(1)

NAME
       cp, mv  - copy, move files

SYNOPSIS
       cp file1 file2
       cp file ... directory

       mv file1 file2
       mv file ... directory

DESCRIPTION
       In  the	first form file1 is any name and file2 is any name except an existing directory.  In the second form the commands copy or move one
       or more files into a directory under their original file names, as if by a sequence of commands in the first form.  Thus is equivalent to

       Cp copies the contents of plain file1 to file2.	The mode and owner of file2 are preserved if it already exists; the mode of file1 is  used
       otherwise.

       Mv  moves  file1 to file2.  If the files are in the same directory, file1 is just renamed; otherwise mv behaves like cp followed by rm.	Mv
       will rename directories, but it refuses to move a directory into another directory.

SOURCE
       /sys/src/cmd/cp.c
       /sys/src/cmd/mv.c

SEE ALSO
       cat(1), stat(2)

DIAGNOSTICS
       Cp and mv refuse to copy or move files onto themselves.

																	     CP(1)