Copying Items (cp)

Command Equivalents

Description

The Copy-Item cmdlet copies files and directories from one location to another. Its basic syntax is Copy-Item -Path <source> -Destination <destination>. It is the direct equivalent of the cp command in Linux.

A critical concept for Copy-Item is the use of the -Recurse parameter when dealing with directories that contain items.

Common Usage

Copying a Single File

To copy a single file, provide the source path and the destination directory.

# Copies log.txt from the source folder to the backup folder
Copy-Item -Path "C:\source\log.txt" -Destination "D:\backup\"

Copying and Renaming a File

You can copy and rename a file in a single step by specifying the new name in the destination path.

# Copies log.txt and renames the copy to log_archive.txt
Copy-Item -Path "C:\source\log.txt" -Destination "D:\backup\log_archive.txt"

Copying a Directory and Its Contents

To copy a directory and everything inside it, you must use the -Recurse parameter. This is a safety feature to prevent accidental copying of large directory trees.

# Copies the entire MyProject folder and its contents
Copy-Item -Path "C:\source\MyProject" -Destination "D:\backup\" -Recurse

Overwriting Existing Items

By default, Copy-Item will ask for confirmation if it’s about to overwrite an existing file. To force the overwrite without a prompt, use the -Force parameter. This is also required to overwrite items with the read-only attribute.

# Copies the file, overwriting the destination file if it already exists
Copy-Item -Path "C:\source\log.txt" -Destination "D:\backup\" -Force