As you may already know, the cp command doesn’t show copy progress when transferring files or folders. When I use cp to copy a large file, I have no idea how long it will take or what percentage has been copied. Other than watching the blinking cursor in the terminal or the hard drive activity light, there’s no clear sign that the copying is actually happening. That’s where the gcp utility comes in.
gcp (Goffi's cp) is an enhanced file copying tool inspired by the traditional cp command. It offers extra features, including progress indicators.
It’s completely free and open-source, released under the GNU General Public License.
Table of Contents
gcp Features
Unlike the cp command, the gcp utility offers the following high-level functionalities:
- Displays the copy progress indicator, with estimated time, current file speed etc.
- gcp continue copying even when there is an issue. It will just skip the problematic file from copying and copy the next files.
- It can copy both single or multiple files or folders.
- gcp logs all its action. So, we can easily find which files have been successfully copied.
- If you accidentally cancels a copy process, it will keep the record of it. Instead of deleting the contents, it will keep the partially copied content. You can then run the copy process again, and it will copy the rest of the files where you left it.
- If you launch a copy when an other is already running, the files are added to the first queue, this avoid your hard drive to move its read/write head all the time.
- You can save a list of files you copied and copy them again later from that list. It will be very useful when you want to copy the same files to multiple targets.
Now, I will show you how to install and use gcp to copy files and folders in Linux and Unix-like operating systems.
Install gcp on Linux
gcp is available in the default repositories of Debian, and Ubuntu. You can install by simply running the following command from the Terminal:
sudo apt install gcp
For Arch Linux, and its derivatives, It is available in AUR. So, you can install it using any AUR helper, for example Yay.
yay -S python-gcp-git
Then, install the python-progressbar package, which is used to display the progress bar while copying files.
yay -S python-progressbar
gcp is also available on PyPI, you can install it with Pip package manager like below:
pip3 install gcp
And, finally, install python-progressbar.
Debian/Ubuntu:
sudo apt install python-progressbar
How to use gcp, the advanced file copier, in Linux
gcp usage is pretty much same as cp command's.
The typical usage of gcp is:
gcp [OPTIONS] FILE DEST gcp [OPTIONS] FILE1 [FILE2...] DEST-DIR
Let me show you some practical examples. The following command will copy the contents of Dir1 to a directory called Dir2.
gcp Dir1/video.mp4 Dir2/
Sample output:
Copying 876.53 MiB 100% |############################| 30.08 MB/s Time: 0:00:30
As you see in the above output, gcp command shows the copy progress indicator, with estimated time, current file speed etc. It will makes us easy to find what is really going on.
To copy multiple files, just specify them one after the another and the target directory like below.
gcp file1 file2 Dir
To copy a folder to another folder, use -r flag like below.
gcp -r Dir1/ Dir2/
If you don,t want to see the progress bar, you can disable it using --no-progress flag.
gcp --no-progress source destination
If the target folder already has the same file, you will get the following warning message:
File [/home/sk/Dir2/video.mp4] already exists, skipping it ! /!\ THE FOLLOWING FILES WERE *NOT* SUCCESSFULY COPIED: - /home/sk/Dir1/video.mp4 -- Please check journal: /home/sk/.gcp/journal
You can verify the journal file whether the previous file process is successfully complete or not.
cat /home/sk/.gcp/journal
Output:
/home/sk/Dir1/video.mp4 OK:
If the output is OK, the copy process is success. If the output is PARTIAL, It means that the file was copied, but something went wrong (e.g. changing the permissions of the file). FAILED means - the file was not copied.
For more details about gcp utility, run the following command:
gcp --help
Or, refer the man pages.
man gcp
Update:
The progress bar for cp and mv commands can be easily added using a patch named "Advanced Copy". For details, check the following link.
Advanced Copy – Add Progress Bar To cp And mv Commands In Linux
Resource:
Recommended Read:
4 comments
Excellent tool. Thanks for making it known. Until I read this I had no idea about it. It’s similar to zsync in its verbose level, but aimed for local file copies.
Looks nice! 🙂 But what I really, really would like for an advanced cp tool, is the possibility to copy to multiple destinations (parallel), too… Starting the copies with a syntax like gcp -r SourceDir/ -d DestDir1/ DestDir2/
(For instance using -d to indicate that the listing of destinations begins)
The advantage should be that the process should only need to read once (per block) and then perform multiple copies of the read data. In the classical sequential solution you would need to read the source files once again for each copy…
This program is a godsend (that’s good). I have a Samsung 500 GB pro SSD that I keep my whole life on. Medical records, bill paying, bank accoounts, you name it. To lose this would be a disaster. I use gcp to backup the whole drive every day. 50 GB in under 5 minutes. It appears to be much faster than cp, it never fails, and it’s simple to use. Kind of like Clonezilla but for data.
I have had to use it to restore a few times, and I just reverse the backup process.
Don’t mess with perfection!
Good to know. It’s a shame that this utility isn’t getting any development activities in the recent years. It appears to be the author abandoned it.