mcopy
Section: User Commands (1)
Updated: 28Nov20
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Name
mcopy - copy MSDOS files to/from Unix
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Description
The mcopy command is used to copy MS-DOS files to and from
Unix. It uses the following syntax:
mcopy [-bspanvmQT] [-D clash_option] sourcefile targetfile
mcopy [-bspanvmQT] [-D clash_option] sourcefile [ sourcefiles... ] targetdirectory
mcopy [-tnvm] MSDOSsourcefile
Mcopy copies the specified file to the named file, or copies
multiple files to the named directory. The source and target can be
either MS-DOS or Unix files.
The use of a drive letter designation on the MS-DOS files, 'a:' for
example, determines the direction of the transfer. A missing drive
designation implies a Unix file whose path starts in the current
directory. If a source drive letter is specified with no attached file
name (e.g. mcopy a: .), all files are copied from that drive.
If only a single, MS-DOS source parameter is provided (e.g. "mcopy
a:foo.exe"), an implied destination of the current directory
(`.') is assumed.
A filename of `-' means standard input or standard output, depending
on its position on the command line.
Mcopy accepts the following command line options:
- t
-
Text file transfer. Mcopy translates incoming carriage return/line
feeds to line feeds when copying from MS-DOS to Unix, and vice-versa when
copying from Unix to MS-DOS.
- b
-
Batch mode. Optimized for huge recursive copies, but less secure if a
crash happens during the copy.
- s
-
Recursive copy. Also copies directories and their contents
- p
-
Preserves the attributes of the copied files
- Q
-
When mcopying multiple files, quits as soon as one copy fails (for
example due to lacking storage space on the target disk)
- a
-
Text (ASCII) file transfer. ASCII translates incoming carriage
return/line feeds to line feeds.
- T
-
Text (ASCII) file transfer with character set conversion. Differs from
-a in the ASCII also translates incoming PC-8 characters
to ISO-8859-1 equivalents as far as possible. When reading DOS files,
untranslatable characters are replaced by '#'; when writing DOS files,
untranslatable characters are replaced by '.'.
- n
-
No confirmation when overwriting Unix files. ASCII doesn't
warn the user when overwriting an existing Unix file. If the target
file already exists, and the -n option is not in effect,
mcopy asks whether to overwrite the file or to rename the new
file (see ∞name clashesIntegral) for details). In order to switch off
confirmation for DOS files, use -o.
- m
-
Preserve the file modification time.
- v
-
Verbose. Displays the name of each file as it is copied.
Bugs
Unlike MS-DOS, the '+' operator (append) from MS-DOS is not
supported. However, you may use
mtype to produce the same effect:
mtype a:file1 a:file2 a:file3 >unixfile
mtype a:file1 a:file2 a:file3 | mcopy - a:msdosfile
See Also
Mtools' texinfo doc
Viewing the texi doc
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