I have noticed that cp -a not only will copy hidden files but the -a causes it to act differently than any other form of cp. The man page says cp -a is the equivalent of cp -dpR but it is not at all the same. For one thing, cp -a copies the .hidden files. For another, any other form of cp would use a command line like: cp source_dir/ target_dir/ where target_dir has been already created. If you do the same with cp -a you will end up with a target_dir that is empty except for a subdirectory that has the same name as the source_dir! This is completely different than I have ever seen cp act. The way to copy all files in a tree is to use the command: cp -a source_dir target_dir where target_dir has NOT been created yet. Then cp -a will create the target_dir and recursively copy all files including .hidden ones. Note that I always use \cp -a source_dir target_dir where the \ in front of cp defeats any options you may have in a cp alias. In fact my cp is aliased to cp -ipdv to preserve any links and also to preserve the date-time and other attributes of the copied file - otherwise it's very confusing when your copy has the current date and time. The above is just some stuff I had to figure out on my own because the cp command acts differently in a non-intutive way depending on the options and is very non-intutive when by default it creates a copy with the current date and time. Larry Alkoff N2LA Larry Alkoff N2LA - Austin TX
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