ditto(8) BSD System Manager's Manual ditto(8)
NAME
ditto - copy files and directories to a destination directory
SYNOPSIS
ditto [-v] [-V] [-X] [--arch arch] [--bom bom] [--rsrc] src ...
dst_directory
ditto [-v] [-V] [--arch arch] [--rsrc] src_file dst_file
ditto -c [-z] [-k] [-v] [-V] [-X] [--keepParent] src dst_archive
ditto -x [-z] [-k] [-v] [-V] src_archive ... dst_directory
DESCRIPTION
In its first form, ditto copies one or more source files or directories
to a destination directory. If the destination directory does not exist
it will be created before the first source is copied. If the destination
directory already exists then the source directories are merged with the
previous contents of the destination.
In its second form, ditto copies a file to the supplied dst_file path-
name.
The final forms reflect ditto's ability to create and unpack archives.
These archives can be either CPIO format (preferred for unix content) or
PKZip (for Windows compatibility). src_archive (and dst_archive) can be
the single character '-', causing ditto to read (write) archive data from
(to) stdin (stdout).
ditto overwrites existing files, symbolic links, and devices in the des-
tination when these are copied from a source. The resulting files,
links, and devices will have the same mode, access time, modification
time, owner, and group as the source items from which they are copied.
Pipes, sockets, and files with names beginning with .nfs or .afpDeleted
will be ignored. ditto does not modify the mode, owner, or group of
existing directories in the destination. Files cannot overwrite directo-
ries or vice-versa.
ditto can be used to "thin" multi-architecture binaries during a copy.
ditto can also copy files selectively based on the contents of a BOM
("Bill of Materials") file. ditto preserves hardlinks present in the
source directories and preserves setuid and setgid modes. Finally, ditto
can preserve resource fork and HFS meta-data information when copying.
OPTIONS
-v Print a line of output for each source directory copied.
-V Print a line of output for every file, symbolic link, and device
copied.
-X When copying one or more source directories, do not descend into
directories that have a different device ID.
-c create an archive at the destination path. CPIO archives should be
stored in files with names ending in .cpio. Compressed CPIO
archives should be stored in files with names ending in .cpgz.
PKZip archives should be stored in filenames ending in .zip.
-x the first source is an archive to extract.
-z -x implies -z. CPIO archives should be compressed. Uncompressed
data flows through the decompressor unmodified.
-k Instead of CPIO, assume PKZip archives.
--keepParent
the parent directory of src should be embedded in dst_archive.
--keepParent only applies to the creation of archives.
--arch arch
Thin multi-architecture binaries ("fat binaries") to the specified
architecture. If multiple -arch options are specified then the
resulting destination file will be multi-architectural containing
each of the specified architectures (if they are present in the
source file). arch should be specified as "ppc", "i386", etc.
--bom bom
If this option is given then only files, links, devices, and direc-
tories that are present in the specified BOM file are copied.
--rsrc
Preserve resource forks and HFS meta-data. ditto will store this
data in Carbon-compatible ._ AppleDouble files on filesystems that
do not natively support resource forks.
-rsrcFork
synonym for --rsrc
--sequesterRsrc
ditto will preserve resource forks and HFS meta-data in the direc-
tory __MACOSX within PKZip archives.
EXAMPLES
The command:
ditto src_directory dst_directory
copies the contents of src_directory into dst_directory, creating
dst_directory if it does not already exist.
The command:
ditto src_directory dir/dst_directory
copies the contents of src_directory into dir/dst_directory, creating dir
and dst_directory if they don't already exist.
The command:
ditto src-1 ... src-n dst_directory
copies the contents of all of the src directories into dst_directory,
creating dst_directory if it does not already exist.
The command:
ditto --arch ppc fat_file thin_file
copies the contents of fat_file into thin_file, thinning executable code
to ppc-only on the fly.
The command:
ditto -c --rsrc Scripts -|ssh rhost ditto -x --rsrc - ./Scripts
copies Scripts, including resources and metaData, to rhost.
ERRORS
ditto returns 0 if a copy finishes successfully, otherwise non-zero.
Diagnostic messages will be printed to standard error.
ENVIRONMENT
DITTOABORT If the environment variable DITTOABORT is set, ditto will
call abort(3) if it encounters a fatal error.
BUGS
ditto does not copy pipes; it should. ditto cannot copy multiple sources
into a CPIO archive (that this doesn't work for PKZip is expected given
that file format). ditto doesn't copy directories into directories in
the same way as cp(1). In particular,
ditto foo bar
will copy the contents of foo into bar, whereas
cp -r foo bar
copies foo itself into bar. Though this is not a bug, some may consider
this bug-like behavior.
ditto should use getopt(3).
SEE ALSO
bom(5), lsbom(8), cpio(1), zip(1), tar(1), mkbom(8).
Mac OS X 27 February 2003 Mac OS X
Mac OS X 10.3 - Generated Sat Jun 7 05:39:02 CDT 2008