A modern, fast file copy tool for Linux with progress bars, resume capability, and more.
Note
Personal fork. copy is a personal, modified fork of cpx by Bhuminjay Soni (@11happy) — rebranded from cpx to copy and adapted for my own use. It is not affiliated with or endorsed by the upstream project and is maintained on a best-effort basis. For the original, actively maintained tool, use 11happy/cpx.
copy is a modern replacement for the traditional cp command, built with Rust for maximum performance and safety on Linux systems.
- 🚀 Fast parallel copying (upto 5x faster than cp benchmarks)
- 📊 Beautiful progress bars (customizable)
- ⏸️ Resume interrupted transfers
- 🛑 Graceful Ctrl+C handling with resume hints
- 🎯 Exclude patterns (gitignore-style)
- ⚙️ Flexible configuration
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/UnbreakableMJ/copy/main/install.sh | bashOr with wget:
wget -qO- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/UnbreakableMJ/copy/main/install.sh | bashA first-party PKGBUILD lives in packaging/aur/. Build and install it from a checkout:
cd packaging/aur && makepkg -siAn official AUR upload will track this PKGBUILD. (The older community
cpx-copypackage predates the rename.)
This repo is a flake. Run or install copy straight from GitHub:
nix run github:UnbreakableMJ/copy -- --help
nix profile install github:UnbreakableMJ/copyFor a dev shell with the Rust toolchain, run nix develop.
A guix.scm is provided. Guix builds offline, so vendor the crates once, then build:
cargo vendor guix/vendor
guix build -f guix.scm(Needs a Guix rust ≥ 1.85 for edition 2024.)
The default feature set has no SELinux system dependency. Building with
--features selinux-support requires libselinux development headers that
provide selinux/selinux.h (for example, libselinux-devel or the equivalent
package for your distribution).
cargo install --git https://github.com/UnbreakableMJ/copy
copy --versionPrebuilt Linux binaries are attached to each release. The current release is v0.1.5:
| Target | Asset |
|---|---|
| x86_64 (glibc) | copy-linux-x86_64.tar.gz |
| x86_64 (musl, static) | copy-linux-x86_64-musl.tar.gz |
| aarch64 | copy-linux-aarch64.tar.gz |
| armv7 | copy-linux-armv7.tar.gz |
# Example: x86_64 (glibc)
curl -fsSL https://github.com/UnbreakableMJ/copy/releases/download/v0.1.5/copy-linux-x86_64.tar.gz | tar xz
./copy --version# Copy a file
copy source.txt dest.txt
# Copy directory recursively
copy -r source_dir/ dest_dir/
# exclude build artifacts
copy -r -e "node_modules" -e ".git" -e "target" my-project/ /backup/
# Resume interrupted transfer
copy -r --resume large_dataset/ /backup/
# Copy with full attribute preservation
copy -r -p=all photos/ /backup/photos/See examples.md for detailed workflows and real-world scenarios.
copy [OPTIONS] <SOURCE>... <DESTINATION>
Arguments:
<SOURCE>... Source file(s) or directory(ies)
<DESTINATION> Destination file or directory
Input/Output Options:
-t, --target-directory <DIRECTORY>
Copy all SOURCE arguments into DIRECTORY
-e, --exclude <PATTERN> Exclude files matching pattern (supports globs, comma-separated)
Copy Behavior:
-r, --recursive Copy directories recursively
-j <N> Number of parallel operations [default: 4]
--resume Resume interrupted transfers (checksum verified)
-f, --force Remove and retry if destination cannot be opened
-i, --interactive Prompt before overwrite
--parents Use full source file name under DIRECTORY
--attributes-only Copy only attributes, not file data
--remove-destination Remove destination file before copying
Link and Symlink Options:
-s, --symbolic-link [MODE]
Create symlinks instead of copying [auto|absolute|relative]
-l, --link Create hard links instead of copying
-P, --no-dereference Never follow symbolic links in SOURCE
-L, --dereference Always follow symbolic links in SOURCE
-H, --dereference-command-line
Follow symbolic links only on command line
Preservation:
-p, --preserve [ATTRS] Preserve attributes [default|all|mode,timestamps,ownership,...]
Available: mode, ownership, timestamps, links, context, xattr
Backup and Reflink:
-b, --backup [MODE] Backup existing files [none|simple|numbered|existing]
--reflink [WHEN] CoW copy if supported [auto|always|never]
Configuration:
--config <PATH> Use custom config file
--no-config Ignore all config files
Other:
-h, --help Print help information
-V, --version Print version information
For complete usage examples, see examples.md
For complete option reference, run copy --help
Set defaults with configuration files:
# Create config with defaults
copy config init
# View active configuration
copy config show
# See config file location
copy config pathConfig locations (in priority order):
./copyconfig.toml(project-level)~/.config/copy/copyconfig.toml(user-level)/etc/copy/copyconfig.toml(system-level, Unix only)
Example config (~/.config/copy/copyconfig.toml):
[exclude]
patterns = ["*.tmp", "*.log", "node_modules", ".git"]
[copy]
parallel = 8
recursive = false
[preserve]
mode = "default"
[progress]
style = "detailed"
[reflink]
mode = "auto"See configuration.md for all options and use cases.
This project also ships a move binary — a modern mv replacement that reuses the same engine. It renames in place when possible (atomic, instant) and falls back to a copy + source removal only when the rename can't be done atomically (across filesystems, or when --exclude leaves part of a directory behind).
# Rename / move a file
move old.txt new.txt
# Move into a directory
move a.txt b.txt dest/
move -t dest/ a.txt b.txt
# Don't overwrite, prompt, or only move newer files
move -n src dst # never overwrite
move -i src dst # prompt before overwrite
move -u src dst # only if source is newer
move -b src dst # back up an existing destination
# Cross-filesystem move that skips logs and preserves attributes
move -e '*.log' -p project/ /mnt/backup/project/Key options: -t/--target-directory, -i/--interactive, -f/--force, -n/--no-clobber, -u/--update, -b/--backup, -v/--verbose, and on the cross-device fallback -j, --reflink, -e/--exclude, -p/--preserve. Run move --help for the full reference. Both copy and move are installed together by every install method above.
copy is built for speed. Quick comparison:
| Task | cp | copy -j16 | speedup |
|---|---|---|---|
| VsCode (~15k files) | 1084ms | 263ms | 4.12x |
| rust (~65k files) | 4.553s | 1.091s | 4.17x |
See benchmarks.md for detailed methodology and more comparisons.
- Configuration Guide - Complete config reference
- Benchmarks - Performance analysis and comparisons
- Contributing - How to contribute
| Platform | Status | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Linux | ✅ Supported | Fast copy supported for (kernel 4.5+) |
| macOS | 🔄 Planned | To be released |
| Windows | 🔄 Planned | To be released |
git clone https://github.com/UnbreakableMJ/copy.git
cd copy
# Run tests
cargo test
# Run clippy
cargo clippy
# Try it out
cargo run -- -r test_data/ test_dest/Some tests are already ported from the GNU coreutils cp test suite, still porting more GNU ported tests.
This is a personal fork maintained on a best-effort basis; issue reports are welcome.
copy is a personal Spacecraft Software hobby project maintained on a
best-effort basis for the maintainer's own use case. See NOTICE.md
for the no-warranty/no-liability posture and CONTRIBUTING.md
for contribution expectations.
GPL-3.0-or-later — see LICENSE. The upstream cpx code by Bhuminjay
Soni was released under the MIT license; that license text is preserved in
LICENSES/MIT.txt. Fork modifications are distributed under
GPL-3.0-or-later.
copy is a fork of cpx by Bhuminjay Soni (@11happy). The original tool — its design and implementation — is entirely their work, reused here under the MIT license. This fork renames the binary to copy, flattens the CLI so copy is the root command, adds Nix / AUR / Guix packaging, and migrates the fork distribution to GPL-3.0-or-later; full credit for the underlying tool goes upstream. See CREDITS.md.
Inspired by ripgrep, fd, and the modern Rust CLI ecosystem.
Built with: clap, indicatif, rayon, jwalk, and more.