-2

Reading up on cp -R, what do these mean:

  • create special files rather than copying them as normal files
  • Created directories have the same mode as the corresponding source directory, unmodified by the process' umask

I assume by mode they mean for example 0755.

Snowcrash
  • 80,579
  • 89
  • 266
  • 376

1 Answers1

1

You're right about mode.

The "special files" are for instance soft-links (ln -s). Using cp -R you will create another soft-link, rather than a copy of the file that the link points to.

geert3
  • 7,086
  • 1
  • 33
  • 49