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)