Getting an error cp: cannot stat when trying to copy files from one folder to another

Question

I have this directory called "mock", which contains 3 directories. I am trying to copy all the items from "mock" directory into the "projweek" directory using the following command:

cp  /mock/* ~/projweek

But I get this error:

cp: cannot stat ‘mock/*’: No such file or directory

Any ideas as to why that is?

In my case folder folder name was in correct :D – TRiNE May 25 '19 at 07:57 — TRiNE, May 25 '19 at 07:57
In my case source dir exist but *empty* – tumbudu Dec 28 '22 at 07:38 — tumbudu, Dec 28 '22 at 07:38

score 118 · Answer 1 · answered Jul 09 '18 at 06:45

118

If your source directory is set in quotes, then make sure that the * is outside the quotes, i.e.

cp "source/"* dest

or

cp "source"/* dest

answered Jul 09 '18 at 06:45

isapir

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good to have this answer here, if you come by search, but not exactly the case of OP, as OP didn't use quotes. star inside double quotes "\*" is taken literally , as a file with a star (\*) in its name. End it does not exist. – papo Nov 14 '18 at 07:06
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ok, could you please edit the answer, so it will be valid also for the OP's question? – papo Nov 14 '18 at 12:31
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Note that what's true for `*` also goes for `~`. For some reason the only way I could get `cp "~/stuff" dest` to work was `cp "$HOME/stuff" dest`. – Jack M Aug 24 '20 at 22:41
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This does not answer the question at all. – Andrew Koster Feb 17 '22 at 09:46
You can find several solutions to `cp` with `*` in a script [here](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/35708506/linux-wildcard-usage-in-cp-and-mv). – philburns Mar 15 '23 at 15:13

score 27 · Answer 2 · answered Aug 05 '20 at 12:46

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It's an odd thing about the unix system that glob expansion (aka use of the "*") is done by the shell, and not by the program you are calling, and furthermore, if the glob doesn't match anything, instead of expanding to nothing, it expands to itself and passes that to the program. So the cp command sees literally "/mock/*" which doesn't exist, because you have no file called "*". Somewhat perversely if you had a file called "*" it would dutifully copy it without complaining.

answered Aug 05 '20 at 12:46

xpusostomos

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You blow my mind! – C-F Mar 02 '23 at 04:01
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You can find several solutions to `cp` with `*` in a script [here](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/35708506/linux-wildcard-usage-in-cp-and-mv). – philburns Mar 15 '23 at 14:15

score 10 · Answer 3 · answered Aug 05 '19 at 12:18

cannot stat = file/dir does not exist. Check the path first.

And, you say you want to copy /mock but the error message says mock. Show the real code first.

When I test in ubuntu, cp (GNU coreutils) 8.28, I have no problem with copying all files under a dir to another dir, when both paths are correct.

root@DESKTOP-9NHNV2I:~# cp /root/temp/* /root
root@DESKTOP-9NHNV2I:~# ls
temp  test.txt  test2.txt  test3333.txt

Caffeine Coder · Answer 4 · 2021-07-26T14:33:35.033

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cp: cannot stat ‘mock/*’: No such file or director

Check that the files exist on the path.
Also to copy all the files in a folder to another location, use . operator like: cp /source/. /dest/

edited Jul 26 '21 at 14:33

answered Jul 12 '21 at 19:30

Caffeine Coder

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score 5 · Answer 5 · answered Dec 13 '15 at 17:46

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cp is used in unix/linux for copy

cp /mock/* ~/projweek this means copy from /mock folder all files to folder projweek that resides in root

This means cp: cannot stat ‘mock/*’: No such file or directory unable to copy all files from mock folder because file or directory not exists on relevant path

answered Dec 13 '15 at 17:46

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So how can I am amend this? Both mock and projweek are in the root @LifeSaver – user5647516 Dec 13 '15 at 17:48
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Try `ls /mock`. Do you get an error? If so, your path to `/mock` is incorrect. If not, make sure that `/mock` actually has files in it. – Kenneth Odle Feb 17 '19 at 19:28

score 1 · Answer 6 · answered Dec 24 '21 at 03:32

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When I configured shell script on jenkins(See the following lines), I got this error "cp cannot stat ... No such file or directory".

ssh user@remoteNode
cd /somedir
cp fromdir/xxfile todir/xxfile

The following command solves my problem.

ssh user@remoteNode "cd /somedir; cp fromdir/xxfile todir/xxfile"

Why? Double quotation marks are required. If not, the cp command will be executed locally. Thanks to CDSN blogger Jinking01.

answered Dec 24 '21 at 03:32

Tansy Z

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This particular problem is a symptom of https://stackoverflow.com/questions/37586811/pass-commands-as-input-to-another-command-su-ssh-sh-etc – tripleee Feb 18 '22 at 06:06

Getting an error cp: cannot stat when trying to copy files from one folder to another

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