How to copy one file to multiple filenames?

Question

The command touch {jan,feb,mar}-{Rep.xls,graph.xls} creates files I can't open:

feb-graph.xls jan-Rep.xls feb-Rep.xls mar-graph.xls jan-graph.xls mar-Rep.xls

So I created one template file 1.ods, saved with OO-Calc. Then I tried to copy this file using cp again in the same fashion as cp:

cp 1.ods {jan,feb,mar}{Rep.ods,graph.ods}

but that doesnt work:

cp: target `margraph.ods' is not a directory

How do I copy a single file to multiple files?

when you give multiple args to cp it assumes you want to copy a lot of files to the last one -- which is then expected to be a directory; hence your error. — nik, May 26, 2011 at 15:19
So, you want to copy a single file to multiple new files in one command? — nik, May 26, 2011 at 15:20

Lekensteyn · Accepted Answer · 2015-07-14 21:22:04Z

13

Combine cat (retrieves the contents of a file) with tee (writes the content away to the files specified in the arguments):

cat 1.ods | tee {jan,feb,mar}-{Rep,graph}.ods >/dev/null

Alternative using shell redirection:

tee {jan,feb,mar}-{Rep,graph}.ods >/dev/null < 1.ods

In both cases, > /dev/null is a redirection that discards the duplicated contents (tee writes its input to each parameter and standard output).

answered May 26, 2011 at 15:19

Lekensteyn

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1

+1, nice too! I seem to be biased towards for-loops ;-)
– nik
May 26, 2011 at 15:23
@nik: my previous answer included a for loop too, but this one-liner is more clear
– Lekensteyn
May 26, 2011 at 15:26

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nik · Accepted Answer · 2011-05-26 15:21:58Z

4

How about,

for file in {jan,feb,mar}-{Rep.xls,graph.xls}
do
  cp 1.ods $file
done

answered May 26, 2011 at 15:21

nik

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How this is executable? What execution type or language or filetype is it needs to be?
– Kangarooo
Aug 4, 2015 at 4:06
It is a bash script. This can be executed in a shell or save it to a .sh file and execute it
– Rufus_12
Apr 12, 2016 at 7:51

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2 Answers 2