copy folder contents without overwrite prompt

[nicki vallentgoed]

Hi all

I need to copy a folder and its contents, automatically overwriting the existing folder if it exists.

I can get the folder to copy e.g:
cp -r /a/b/ /c/

but the second time i run the command it asks for confirmation:

[root@SK-DB-CA-T /]# cp -r /c/b/ /a/
cp: overwrite `/a/b/aaa.txt'? n
cp: overwrite `/a/b/aaa.txt~'? n

how do i stop it from doing so?

[hexcode]

use
cp -Rf /c/b /a/

[nicki vallentgoed]

Hi
nope it does not work

[root@SK-DB-CA-T /]# cp -Rf /c/b /a/
cp: overwrite `/a/b/aaa.txt'? n
cp: overwrite `/a/b/aaa.txt~'? n

and i am using a stock standard red hat 5 installation, if that matters

[i92guboj]

Feed it using the "yes" command.

yes | cp <whatever>

If confirmation is needed, "yes" will be assumed as the answer and cp will continue.

[Freston]

Maybe Red Hat has `cp -i` as a default option to ls?

You can probably see by typing

echo $LS_OPTIONS

What happens when you do /bin/ls -r dir blabla, does that do it non-interactively?