Cp -n command


 
Thread Tools Search this Thread
Top Forums UNIX for Beginners Questions & Answers Cp -n command
# 1  
Old 06-25-2018
Cp -n command

I would like to find a substitute cp -n command in HP-UX
Code:
cp -n 
-n, --no-clobber

do not overwrite an existing file (overrides a previous -i option)

Thanks

---------- Post updated at 12:35 PM ---------- Previous update was at 11:54 AM ----------

I could not find this info in man pages and yes I can write a function to do this but thought to ask in case I missed something
# 2  
Old 06-25-2018
Would you like to switch on -n by default or prevent it working at all? I'm not sure which way round you mean.

Perhaps you have scripts that use it, but it doesn't work on HP-UX and you want your scripts to be portable. Is that what you are saying?



Sorry for being confused.
Robin
# 3  
Old 06-25-2018
Hi, thanks to reply, I meant that I would prefer to use cp -n option or similar switch on HP-UX if there is one as I did it on Linux. But I could not find it on HP-UX. I thought maybe there is something similar that I am just don't know of.
I am just saying that if there is nothing like that on HP-UX I will write a small script for that. And it's not a an issue.

Thanks again
Cheers
# 4  
Old 06-25-2018
"cp -n" is a GNU extension to the POSIX standard "cp" utility.

As it's a platform-specific, non-standard extension, it's not necessarily going to be available on other, non-GNU platforms.
This User Gave Thanks to achenle For This Post:
# 5  
Old 06-25-2018
You can try the trick
Code:
cp -i ... < /dev/null

These 3 Users Gave Thanks to MadeInGermany For This Post:
# 6  
Old 06-25-2018
If the output file doesn't exist, you are good to go. *
If the output is a directory, check it for the presence of your input file. *

* Possible extra check: do you have execute and write permissions in the current or target directory?
# 7  
Old 06-25-2018
Quote:
Originally Posted by MadeInGermany
You can try the trick
Code:
cp -i ... < /dev/null


Very nifty trick! You might want to suppress the confirmation question as well:

Code:
cp -i . . .  </dev/null 2>/dev/null


EDIT: or even cp -i . . . </dev/null 2>&0 ?
Login or Register to Ask a Question

Previous Thread | Next Thread

10 More Discussions You Might Find Interesting

1. UNIX for Beginners Questions & Answers

Another one line command where I'd like to determine if Ubuntu or Red Hat when running command

Hello Forum, I'm making very good progress on my report thanks to the very helpful people on this forum. I've been able to successfully create my report for my Red Hat servers. But I do have a few ubuntu servers in the mix and I'd like to capture some data from them when an ssh connection is... (8 Replies)
Discussion started by: greavette
8 Replies

2. AIX

I'm facing problem with rpm command, when running the command and appears this error:

exec(): 0509-036 Cannot load program /usr/opt/freeware/bin/rpm because of the following errors: 0509-022 Cannot load module /opt/freeware/lib/libintl.a(libintl.so.1). 0509-150 Dependent module /opt/freeware/lib/libiconv.a(shr4.o) could not be loaded. 0509-152 Member... (4 Replies)
Discussion started by: Ohmkar
4 Replies

3. Shell Programming and Scripting

Multiple command execution inside awk command during xml parsing

below is the output xml string from some other command and i will be parsing it using awk cat /tmp/alerts.xml <Alert id="10102" name="APP-DS-ds_ha-140018-componentFailure-S" alertDefinitionId="13982" resourceId="11427" ctime="1359453507621" fixed="false" reason="If Event/Log Level(ANY) and... (2 Replies)
Discussion started by: vivek d r
2 Replies

4. Shell Programming and Scripting

SH script, variable built command fails, but works at command line

I am working with a sh script on a solaris 9 zone (sol 10 host) that grabs information to build the configuration command line. the variables Build64, SSLopt, CONFIGopt, and CC are populated in the script. the script includes CC=`which gcc` CONFIGopt=' --prefix=/ --exec-prefix=/usr... (8 Replies)
Discussion started by: oly_r
8 Replies

5. UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

passing command output from one command to the next command in cshell

HI Guys, I hope you are well. I am trying to write a script that gets executed every time i open a shell (cshell). I have two questions about that 1) I need to enter these commands $ echo $DISPLAY $ setenv $DISPLAY output_of_echo_$display_command How can i write a... (2 Replies)
Discussion started by: kaaliakahn
2 Replies

6. UNIX for Advanced & Expert Users

unix command : how to insert text at the cursor location via command line?

Hi, Well my title isn't very clear I think. So to understand my goal: I have a script "test1" #!/bin/bash xvkbd -text blabla with xbindkeys, I bind F5 key in order it runs my test1 script So when I press F5, test1 runs. I'm under Emacs/Vi and I press F5 in order to have "blabla" be... (0 Replies)
Discussion started by: xib.be
0 Replies

7. Shell Programming and Scripting

Need help! command working ok when executed in command line, but fails when run inside a script!

Hi everyone, when executing this command in unix: echo "WM7 Fatal Alerts:", $(cat query1.txt) > a.csvIt works fine, but running this command in a shell script gives an error saying that there's a syntax error. here is content of my script: tdbsrvr$ vi hc.sh "hc.sh" 22 lines, 509... (4 Replies)
Discussion started by: 4dirk1
4 Replies

8. AIX

AIX:Command to get netaddress/subnet address command in IPv4/IP6

AIX:Command to get netaddress/subnet address command in IPv4/IP6 Can anybody help us with a command to retrieve netaddress/subnet address command in IPv4/IP6 on aix machine. net/subnet address is in the format 172.16.212.0(signifies all 255 machines in an IPv4 network) (2 Replies)
Discussion started by: rookie8278
2 Replies

9. Shell Programming and Scripting

assign a command line argument and a unix command to awk variables

Hi , I have a piece of code ...wherein I need to assign the following ... 1) A command line argument to a variable e.g origCount=ARGV 2) A unix command to a variable e.g result=`wc -l testFile.txt` in my awk shell script When I do this : print "origCount" origCount --> I get the... (0 Replies)
Discussion started by: sweta_doshi
0 Replies

10. SuSE

inconsistent ls command display at the command prompt & running as a cron job

Sir, I using the following commands in a file (part of a bigger script): #!/bin/bash cd /opt/oracle/bin ls -lt | tail -1 | awk '{print $6}' >> /tmp/ramb.out If I run this from the command prompt the result is: 2007-05-16 if I run it as a cron job then... (5 Replies)
Discussion started by: rajranibl
5 Replies
Login or Register to Ask a Question