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Copy and paste a file in Linux with this handy guide
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This wikiHow teaches you how to copy and paste a file on a Linux computer. The command line can be used to copy and paste files, or you can use the keyboard shortcuts or your computer's right-click function if you're using a version of Linux that has a user interface.
Things You Should Know
- Open the Terminal by pressing Alt + Ctrl + T on most Linux versions.
- Type in cd path where "path" is the address of the folder in which the file you want to copy is located.
- Type the "copy" tag cp followed by a file's name and extension.
Steps
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Open Terminal. Click or double-click the Terminal app icon, which usually resembles a black box with a white ">_" on it.- You can also just press Alt + Ctrl + T to open Terminal on most Linux versions.
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Go to the proper directory. Type in cd path where "path" is the address of the folder in which the file you want to copy is located, then press ↵ Enter .- For example, to tell Terminal to look for your file in the Desktop folder, you would type cd Desktop into Terminal.
- Make sure you capitalize the folder's name if necessary.
- If attempting to switch to a folder results in an error, you'll need to enter the folder's entire path (e.g., /home/name/Desktop/folder instead of just folder ) here.
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Type in the "copy" tag. This tag is cp with a space after it. -
Enter a file's name. Type in the name and extension of the file you want to copy after cp and the space, then add a space.- For example, if you want to copy a file named "hello", you would type cp hello into Terminal.
- If the file name has an extension on the end of it (e.g., ".desktop"), make sure you include the extension in the file's name when typing it into Terminal.
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Enter the destination folder. Type in the path for the folder into which you want to copy the file.- For example, if you want to copy "hello" into a folder named "Hi" that's stored in the Documents folder, you would have cp hello /home/name/Documents/Hi (where "name" is your username) typed into Terminal.
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Press ↵ Enter . Doing so will run your command. Your file will be pasted into the folder you specified.
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Consider using keyboard shortcuts. As with virtually all operating systems that have user interfaces, you can use keyboard shortcuts to copy and paste files on Linux:- Click the file you want to copy to select it, or drag your mouse across multiple files to select them all.
- Press Ctrl + C to copy the files.
- Go to the folder into which you want to copy the files.
- Press Ctrl + V to paste in the files.
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Find the file you want to copy. Go to the location in which the file is located. -
Select the file. Click once the file to do so. -
Right-click the file. Doing so will prompt a drop-down menu.- Some Linux versions will also display a menu bar at the top of the screen. If so, you can click Edit instead of right-clicking the selected file.
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Click Copy . It's in the drop-down menu. This copies the selected file.- You may click Copy... or Copy File on some versions of Linux.
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Go to the destination folder. Find the folder into which you want to paste the file. -
Right-click an empty space. This will create a drop-down menu in the folder. -
Click Paste . It's in the drop-down menu. Doing so pastes in your copied file.
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Community Q&A
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QuestionWhat option will allow me to copy the contents of /dir1 to /dir2 while preserving the modification times, ownership, and permissions?Community AnswerYou can try "-a" for an archive to preserve as much as possible. You can also do "--preserve" followed by a comma-separated list of attributes to preserve (or "--preserve all"). Finally, try "cp --help" or "man cp" for more options.
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Tips
- If you want to move a file to a different folder rather than copying the file, you can type mv instead of cp when specifying the file's name and its destination (e.g., mv hello Documents ).Thanks
- Holding down Ctrl while clicking individual files will select each file you click. Right-clicking one of the selected files and selecting Copy will then copy all of the selected files.Thanks
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Warnings
- Not all versions of Linux have a user interface. If your version of Linux has only a command line, you'll need to use the "cp" command to copy your files.Thanks
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