How can I make a progress bar while copying a directory with cp?

Question

I suppose I could compare the number of files in the source directory to the number of files in the target directory as cp progresses, or perhaps do it with folder size instead? I tried to find examples, but all bash progress bars seem to be written for copying single files. I want to copy a bunch of files (or a directory, if the former is not possible).

Solution 1

You can also use rsync instead of cp like this:

rsync -Pa source destination

Which will give you a progress bar and estimated time of completion. Very handy.

Solution 2

To show a progress bar while doing a recursive copy of files & folders & subfolders (including links and file attributes), you can use gcp (easily installed in Ubuntu and Debian by running "sudo apt-get install gcp"):

gcp -rf SRC DEST

Here is the typical output while copying a large folder of files:

Copying 1.33 GiB  73% |#####################      | 230.19 M/s ETA:  00:00:07

Notice that it shows just one progress bar for the whole operation, whereas if you want a single progress bar per file, you can use rsync:

rsync -ah --progress SRC DEST

Solution 3

You may have a look at the tool vcp. Thats a simple copy tool with two progress bars: One for the current file, and one for overall.

EDIT

Here is the link to the sources: http://members.iinet.net.au/~lynx/vcp/ Manpage can be found here: http://linux.die.net/man/1/vcp

Most distributions have a package for it.

Solution 4

Here another solution: Use the tool bar

You could invoke it like this:

#!/bin/bash
filesize=$(du -sb ${1} | awk '{ print $1 }')
tar -cf - -C ${1} ./ | bar --size ${filesize} | tar -xf - -C ${2}

You have to go the way over tar, and it will be inaccurate on small files. Also you must take care that the target directory exists. But it is a way.

Solution 5

My preferred option is Advanced Copy, as it uses the original cp source files.

$ wget http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/coreutils/coreutils-8.21.tar.xz
$ tar xvJf coreutils-8.21.tar.xz
$ cd coreutils-8.21/
$ wget --no-check-certificate wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jarun/advcpmv/master/advcpmv-0.8-8.32.patch
$ patch -p1 -i advcpmv-0.8-8.32.patch
$ ./configure
$ make

The new programs are now located in src/cp and src/mv. You may choose to replace your existing commands:

$ sudo cp src/cp /usr/local/bin/cp
$ sudo cp src/mv /usr/local/bin/mv

Then you can use cp as usual, or specify -g to show the progress bar:

$ cp -g src dest

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Comments

[octosquidopus]

I was hoping for something that doesn't require compiling external tools. I just want to see my directory get copied. Is it really so difficult?

[Thomas Berger]

@Anonymouse added a second answer, maybe this would be an alternative for you. But thats my last idea :(

[octosquidopus]

Early on, I thought about tarring the folder before moving it, but thought it would lack too much in elegance. I was wrong. It works as expected and might actually be a better solution in some cases. Thanks!

[Adrien]

Right, rsync --progress /path/to/origin /path/to/destination is awesome and is available on all systems.

[Adrien]

As said below, rsync is available on all systems (even Mac OS), as opposed to vcp.

[Nathan]

Works when copying a single file as well.

[KevinHJ]

Happen to know the speed comparison between rsync and cp?

[SteveLambert]

@Allasso Tough to say because there's so many options and situations which affect it. It can be slower for certain sets files, especially with a small CPU, because it's analyzing/syncing not copying, and encrypting files (when over a network, iirc). For example see superuser.com/questions/109780/how-to-speed-up-rsync or superuser.com/questions/153176/…

[socketpair]

gcp is Python-based. PLEASE DO NOT USE IN PRODUCTION. I did not check, but it seems does not support hardlinks, special attributes and so on .

[Setaa]

The members.iinet.net.au/~lynx/vcp link is broken. There seems to be a current fork at github.com/gdm85/curses-vcp with a last commit of May 29, 2016. I was able to compile it just fine on Fedora 23. An independent vcp with a similar concept is at github.com/lynix/vcp but I have not tried it.

[Setaa]

The link to the patch at zwicke.org is broken but it's on github at github.com/atdt/advcpmv. Perhaps someone with more skills than I will update @elboletaire's steps.

[M.Moro]

gcp doesn't work in a remote terminal (for example via ssh).

[fuujuhi]

If copying several files, consider using gcp or advcpmv, with more useful progress bar.

[fuujuhi]

@M.Moro gcp through ssh works for me with: dbus-launch gcp -pR src dst

[fuujuhi]

This should be selected answer. Better progress bar than rsync if copying several files. Better than gcp because reusing standard cp code from coreutils. Advantage of gcp is that it is distributed as a standard package.

[shrewmouse]

pv is not an option because it won't save permissions or any other file attributes. pv source > dest will give you a nice progress bar but the file dest is not going to be what you want.

[alexkubica]

how do i use it recursively for directories? i tried cpv -r src dst but it prints too few args

[dawid]

Would be worth mentioning that you need to use -g option with this patched cp in order to get the progress bar.

[jemand771]

gcp immediately crashed when executing the command above on a raspberry pi 4. not sure why

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