NAME

       File::Copy - Copy files or filehandles

SYNOPSIS

               use File::Copy;

               copy("file1","file2") or die "Copy failed: $!";
               copy("Copy.pm",\*STDOUT);
               move("/dev1/fileA","/dev2/fileB");

               use File::Copy "cp";

               $n = FileHandle->new("/a/file","r");
               cp($n,"x");

DESCRIPTION

       The File::Copy module provides two basic functions, "copy" and "move", which are useful for getting the
       contents of a file from one place to another.

       copy
           The  "copy" function takes two parameters: a file to copy from and a file to copy to. Either argument
           may be a string, a FileHandle reference or a FileHandle glob. Obviously, if the first argument  is  a
           filehandle  of  some  sort,  it  will  be  read  from, and if it is a file name it will be opened for
           reading. Likewise, the second argument will be written to (and created if need be).  Trying to copy a
           file on top of itself is an error.

           If the destination (second argument) already exists  and  is  a  directory,  and  the  source  (first
           argument)  is  not  a filehandle, then the source file will be copied into the directory specified by
           the destination, using the same base name as the source file.  It's a failure to have a filehandle as
           the source when the destination is a directory.

           Note that passing in files as handles instead of names may  lead  to  loss  of  information  on  some
           operating  systems; it is recommended that you use file names whenever possible.  Files are opened in
           binary mode where applicable.  To get a consistent behaviour when copying  from  a  filehandle  to  a
           file, use "binmode" on the filehandle.

           An  optional  third  parameter  can  be used to specify the buffer size used for copying. This is the
           number of bytes from the first file, that will be held in memory at  any  given  time,  before  being
           written  to the second file. The default buffer size depends upon the file, but will generally be the
           whole file (up to 2MB), or 1k for filehandles that do not reference files (eg. sockets).

           You may use the syntax "use File::Copy "cp"" to get at the "cp" alias for this function.  The  syntax
           is exactly the same.  The behavior is nearly the same as well: as of version 2.15, "cp" will preserve
           the  source  file's  permission  bits  like  the  shell utility cp(1) would do, while "copy" uses the
           default permissions for the target file (which may depend on the process'  "umask",  file  ownership,
           inherited  ACLs, etc.).  If an error occurs in setting permissions, "cp" will return 0, regardless of
           whether the file was successfully copied.

       move
           The "move" function also takes two parameters: the current name and the intended name of the file  to
           be  moved.   If the destination already exists and is a directory, and the source is not a directory,
           then the source file will be renamed into the directory specified by the destination.

           If possible, move() will simply rename the file.  Otherwise, it copies the file to the  new  location
           and  deletes  the  original.  If an error occurs during this copy-and-delete process, you may be left
           with a (possibly partial) copy of the file under the destination name.

           You may use the "mv" alias for this function in the same way that you may  use  the  "cp"  alias  for
           "copy".

       syscopy
           File::Copy  also  provides  the  "syscopy"  routine,  which  copies  the  file specified in the first
           parameter to the file specified in the second parameter, preserving OS-specific attributes  and  file
           structure.  For Unix systems, this is equivalent to the simple "copy" routine, which doesn't preserve
           OS-specific  attributes.   For  VMS  systems, this calls the "rmscopy" routine (see below).  For OS/2
           systems, this calls the "syscopy" XSUB directly. For Win32 systems, this calls "Win32::CopyFile".

           Special behaviour if "syscopy" is defined (OS/2, VMS and Win32):

           If both arguments to "copy" are not file handles, then "copy" will perform a  "system  copy"  of  the
           input  file  to a new output file, in order to preserve file attributes, indexed file structure, etc.
           The buffer size parameter is ignored.  If either argument to "copy" is a handle to  an  opened  file,
           then data is copied using Perl operators, and no effort is made to preserve file attributes or record
           structure.

           The  system  copy routine may also be called directly under VMS and OS/2 as "File::Copy::syscopy" (or
           under VMS as "File::Copy::rmscopy", which is the routine that does the actual work for syscopy).

       rmscopy($from,$to[,$date_flag])
           The first and second arguments may be strings, typeglobs, typeglob references, or objects  inheriting
           from  IO::Handle;  they  are  used in all cases to obtain the filespec of the input and output files,
           respectively.  The name and type of the input file are used as  defaults  for  the  output  file,  if
           necessary.

           A  new  version of the output file is always created, which inherits the structure and RMS attributes
           of the input file, except for owner and protections (and possibly timestamps; see below).   All  data
           from  the input file is copied to the output file; if either of the first two parameters to "rmscopy"
           is a file handle, its position is unchanged.  (Note that this means a file  handle  pointing  to  the
           output  file  will  be  associated  with an old version of that file after "rmscopy" returns, not the
           newly created version.)

           The third parameter is an integer flag, which tells "rmscopy" how to handle timestamps.  If it  is  <
           0,  none  of the input file's timestamps are propagated to the output file.  If it is > 0, then it is
           interpreted as a bitmask: if bit 0 (the LSB) is set, then timestamps other than the revision date are
           propagated; if bit 1 is set, the revision date is propagated.  If the third parameter to "rmscopy" is
           0, then it behaves much like the DCL COPY command: if the  name  or  type  of  the  output  file  was
           explicitly  specified,  then no timestamps are propagated, but if they were taken implicitly from the
           input filespec, then all timestamps other than the revision date are propagated.  If  this  parameter
           is not supplied, it defaults to 0.

           Like  "copy",  "rmscopy"  returns  1  on success.  If an error occurs, it sets $!, deletes the output
           file, and returns 0.

RETURN

       All functions return 1 on success, 0 on failure.  $! will be set if an error was encountered.

AUTHOR

       File::Copy  was  written  by  Aaron  Sherman  <ajs@ajs.com>  in  1995,  and  updated  by  Charles  Bailey
       <bailey@newman.upenn.edu> in 1996.

perl v5.18.2                                       2014-01-06                                  File::Copy(3perl)