How to copy or move files without being asked to overwrite?

Question

What I've tried:

root@host [/home1]# cp -f hello /home3
cp: omitting directory `hello'
root@host [/home1]# cp -rf hello /home3
cp: overwrite `/home3/hello/.buildpath'? y
cp: overwrite `/home3/hello/.bash_logout'? y
cp: overwrite `/home3/hello/.project'? ^C

They always ask me whether I want to overwrite. Using mv doesn't work either. So what should I do?

Other things I tried:

root@host [/home1]# cp -rf hello /home3
cp: overwrite `/home3/hello/.buildpath'? y
cp: overwrite `/home3/hello/.bash_logout'? y
cp: overwrite `/home3/hello/.project'? ^C
root@host [/home1]# cp -force hello /home3
cp: invalid option -- 'o'
Try `cp --help' for more information.
root@host [/home1]# cp --remove-destination hello /home4
cp: omitting directory `hello'
root@host [/home1]# cp --remove-destination hello /home3
cp: omitting directory `hello'
root@host [/home1]# cp --remove-destination -r hello /home3
cp: overwrite `/home3/hello/.buildpath'? ^C
root@host [/home1]#

Answer 1

For force overwrite without asking you should use the command mv and the option "-f", use man to see the options.

man mv:

   -f, --force
          do not prompt before overwriting

Example:

mv -f test.tmp test.txt

Answer 2

cp appears to be either aliased to something which is causing problems, or it is a function. You can remove the alias/function:

unalias cp
unset -f cp

If you'd rather just override it right now, you can use the command command to override any alias/function definitions:

command cp [...]

If you'd rather totally remove this, you probably have to look in your bash startup files.

Answer 3

You probably have an alias for cp. You can override this alias by doing:

\cp -f hello /home3

This has the adventage of not modifying your aliases setup, as it is overriding it just for this call.

Answer 4

Try cp -rv /sourcefileordirectory /Destinationfolder

Answer 5

You can use yes, which is designed for this sort of thing. It will automatically print y and answer these prompts for you:

yes | cp -f hello /home3

Answer 6

just execute alias cp=cp and it will overwrite the target without asking in this session. If you want to have it stored as standard behavior, store it in your ~/.bashrc.