NAME

       gcp - Advanced command-line file copier

SYNOPSIS

       gcp [OPTIONS] FILE DEST
       gcp [OPTIONS] FILE1 [FILE2...] DEST-DIR

DESCRIPTION

       gcp is a file copier, loosely inspired by cp, but with high level functionalities like:

       • transfer progression indication

       • continuous copying when there is an issue: it skips the problematic file and goes on

       • copy status logging: which files were effectively copied

       • name  mangling to handle target filesystem limitations (e.g. removing incompatible chars
         like "?" or "*" on FAT filesystems)

       • forced copy serialization: new files to copy are added to a global queue to  avoid  hard
         drive head seeks

       • transfer list management: gcp can save a list of files to copy and reuse it later

       • approximate  option  compatibility  with  cp  (approximate  because the behaviour is not
         exactly the same, see below)

OPTIONS

       These programs follow the usual GNU command line syntax, with long options  starting  with
       two dashes (`-').

       A summary of options is included below.

   General options
       -h, --help
              Show summary of options.

       -V, --version
              Show program version and copyright information and exit.

   cp-like options
       -f, --force
              Overwrite existing files.

       -L, --dereference
              Always follow symbolic links in sources.

       -P, --no-dereference
              Never follow symbolic links in sources.

       -p     Same as --preserve=mode,ownership,timestamps

       --preserve=<attributes>
              Preserve  specified  attributes.  Attributes can be mode, ownership and timestamps.
              When several attributes are passed, they need to be separated  by  commas.   Please
              note that timestamps preservation has some limits, see section LIMITATIONS.

       -r, -R, --recursive
              Copy directories recursively.

       -v, --verbose
              Display what is being done.

   gcp-specific options
       --fix-filenames=<force|auto|no>
              gcp  has  the ability to modify the destination file name if the target file system
              would not accept the original file name.  Offending  characters  will  be  replaced
              with similar-looking ones.

              This option accept the following values:

              auto (default)
                     gcp will attempt to be smart, i.e. detect incompatibilities and fix them as-
                     needed.

              force  Always fix file names that could cause problems on any known  filesystem  or
                     OS.  This is useful e.g. with NTFS, see NOTE ON NTFS below.

              no     Renaming is disabled entirely.

              Currently,  gcp  is  only  aware of FAT incompatibilities: ´\´, ´:´, ´*´, ´?´, ´"´,
              ´<´, ´>´ and ´|´.

       --no-fs-fix (DEPRECATED)
              Same as --fix-filenames=no.  This option will be removed in a future release.

       --no-progress
              Disable progress bar.

   Sources saving
       --sources-save=SOURCES
              Save the list of source files in a list named SOURCES.

       --sources-replace=SOURCES
              Save the list of source files in a list named SOURCES; the file is  overwritten  it
              already exists.

       --sources-load=SOURCES
              Use the list of source files named SOURCES.

       --sources-del=SOURCES
              Delete the list of source files named SOURCES.

       --sources-list
              List the names of source file lists.

       --sources-full-list
              List the names of source file lists, including their content.

EXIT STATUS

       The exit status can be:

       • 0  if  files have been copied correctly or if another instance of gcp is already running
         and will do the copy.

       • 1 if at least one file has not been copied, or if something went wrong.

       • 2 if all files have been copied but with some issues

LIMITATIONS

       Timestamps preservation with --preserve option is limited by the os Python module on POSIX
       systems.  Currently,  Python  only  returns timestamps in float format, which is a smaller
       precision  than  what  POSIX  provides.  Progress  on  this   issue   can   be   seen   at
       http://bugs.python.org/issue11457.

       The  --preserve  option cannot currently be used without an attribute list (gcp --preserve
       foo bar will behave as gcp --preserve=foo bar). Use the -p switch instead.

NOTE ON NTFS

       NTFS will not enforce the same file name limitations than FAT, but files that would not be
       accepted  on  a  FAT  filesystem  will  still  cause  problems  on  Windows.  Hence, it is
       recommended to use --fix-filenames=force when copying to NTFS (when Windows  compatibility
       is desired, anyway).

SEE ALSO

       cp(1).

AUTHOR

       gcp was written by Jérôme Poisson <goffi@goffi.org>.  It is currently maintained by Matteo
       Cypriani <mcy@lm7.fr>.

       This manual page was initially written by Thomas Preud'homme <robotux@celest.fr>  for  the
       Debian project (and may be used by others).

                                         October 14, 2018                                  GCP(1)