Wed, 28 Jun 2006
Short File Copy Command Line
Making a backup copy of a file is a pretty common thing to do (although you
should be using RCS for a lot of these...). If you're using a machine with a
GUI then copy and pasting the file name twice, with an extension on the
end, is pretty simple. If you're either a keyboard jockey or without a
mouse you can make your life easier with these two short cuts:
# make a copy of file. add the .old extension
cp filename{,-old}
# overwrite the old version with the new version
cp filename{-old,}
# make a backup of a file deep in a directory tree. The copy
# is in the remote directory, not the working one.
cp /var/www/www.unixdaemon.net/htdocs/index.html{,-old}
It's not a huge saving until you find yourself with long filenames, working on a machine without a GUI but it is a useful trick to know.
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Posted: 2006/06/28 17:47 | /tools/commandline | Permanent link to this entry | This entry and same date
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