Copy (command)

For the command for copying with the clipboard, see Cut, copy, and paste.

In computing, copy is a command in various operating systems. The command copies computer files from one directory to another.^[1][2]

copy

The ReactOS copy command
Developer(s)	DEC, Intel, MetaComCo, Heath Company, Zilog, Microware, HP, Microsoft, IBM, DR, TSL, Datalight, Novell, Toshiba
Operating system	RT-11, OS/8, RSX-11, ISIS-II, iRMX 86, TOPS-10, TOPS-20, OpenVMS, TRIPOS, HDOS, DOS, MSX-DOS, FlexOS, 4680 OS, 4690 OS, PC-MOS, Z80-RIO, OS-9, MPE/iX, OS/2, Windows, ReactOS, SymbOS, DexOS
Type	Command
License	HDOS: PD MS-DOS: MIT PC-MOS: GPL v3 ReactOS: GPL v2

Overview

Generally, the command copies files from one location to another. It is used to make copies of existing files, but can also be used to combine (concatenate) multiple files into target files. The destination defaults to the current working directory. If multiple source files are indicated, the destination must be a directory, or an error will result. The command can copy in text mode or binary mode; in text mode, copy will stop when it reaches the EOF character; in binary mode, the files will be concatenated in their entirety, ignoring EOF characters.

Files may be copied to devices. For example, copy file con outputs file to the screen console. Devices themselves may be copied to a destination file, for example, copy con file takes the text typed into the console and puts it into FILE, stopping when EOF (Ctrl+Z) is typed.

Implementations

The command is available in DEC RT-11,^[3] OS/8,^[4] RSX-11,^[5] Intel ISIS-II,^[6] iRMX 86,^[7] DEC TOPS-10,^[8] TOPS-20,^[9] OpenVMS,^[10] MetaComCo TRIPOS,^[11] Heath Company HDOS,^[12] Zilog Z80-RIO,^[13] Microware OS-9,^[14] DOS, DR FlexOS,^[15] IBM/Toshiba 4690 OS,^[16] TSL PC-MOS,^[17] HP MPE/iX,^[18] IBM OS/2,^[19] Microsoft Windows,^[20] Datalight ROM-DOS,^[21] ReactOS,^[22] SymbOS and DexOS.

The copy command is supported by Tim Paterson's SCP 86-DOS.^[23] Under IBM PC DOS/MS-DOS it is available since version 1.^[24] A more advanced copy command is called xcopy.

The equivalent Unix command is cp, the CP/M command is PIP. The command is analogous to the Stratus OpenVOS copy_file command.^[25]

Example for DOS

copy letter.txt [destination]

Files may be copied to device files (e.g. copy letter.txt lpt1 sends the file to the printer on lpt1. copy letter.txt con would output to stdout, like the type command. Note that copy page1.txt+page2.txt book.txt will concatenate the files and output them as book.txt. Which is just like the cat command). It can also copy files between different disk drives.

There are two command-line switches to modify the behaviour when concatenating files:

• Text mode - This copies the text content of the file, stopping when it reaches the EOF character.

copy /a doc1.txt + doc2.txt doc3.txt
copy /a *.txt doc3.txt

• Binary mode - This concatenates files in their entirety, ignoring EOF characters.

copy /b image1.jpg + image2.jpg image3.jpg

See also

• XCOPY in DOS, OS/2, Windows etc.
• cp (Unix)
• Peripheral Interchange Program