CLI Common Cases

Global Conventions

-v - verbose
-h - human readable or help when human readable doesn't apply
--help - help

`cp, mv, install` etc

Single SOURCE:

cp [OPTION]... [-T] SOURCE DEST

-T, --no-target-directory - Treat DEST as a normal file

Multiple SOURCEs:

cp [OPTION]... SOURCE... DIRECTORY

cp [OPTION]... -t DIRECTORY SOURCE...

-t, --target-directory=DIRECTORY - All SOURCE arguments into DIRECTORY

`cp, mv` Common Options

-i - interactive
-b, --backup=[CONTROL] | -S/--suffix=[~] - backup
--strip-trailing-slashes - remove any trailing slashes from each SOURCE argument; useful in scripts.

Conflict resolution:

-n - no clobber
-f - force clobber [remove dest first]
-u - update only when source is newer

cp

Common cases:

cp -a - Preserve security context, xattrs, etc - Also implies dR - no-deference links
cp -R/-r - Recursive (R is only for parity with ls -R where r is reverse sort)
cp --parents ./<src> <dest>/ - To copy current [dot-prefixed] dir tree into dest
cp --parents <src> <dest> - To copy absolute path from root tree into dest
cp -R src/. dest - Copy all the contents of the src into dest. Note the dot after src

Useful options:

-L - override no-deference to always follow sym links
-x - stay inside one fs
-s - sym link instead of copy

Default preserves: timestamp, mode, owner