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rclone/docs/content/commands/rclone_copy.md
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---
title: "rclone copy"
description: "Copy files from source to dest, skipping identical files."
# autogenerated - DO NOT EDIT, instead edit the source code in cmd/copy/ and as part of making a release run "make commanddocs"
---
# rclone copy
Copy files from source to dest, skipping identical files.
## Synopsis
Copy the source to the destination. Does not transfer files that are
identical on source and destination, testing by size and modification
time or MD5SUM. Doesn't delete files from the destination. If you
want to also delete files from destination, to make it match source,
use the [sync](/commands/rclone_sync/) command instead.
Note that it is always the contents of the directory that is synced,
not the directory itself. So when source:path is a directory, it's the
contents of source:path that are copied, not the directory name and
contents.
To copy single files, use the [copyto](/commands/rclone_copyto/)
command instead.
If dest:path doesn't exist, it is created and the source:path contents
go there.
For example
```sh
rclone copy source:sourcepath dest:destpath
```
Let's say there are two files in sourcepath
```text
sourcepath/one.txt
sourcepath/two.txt
```
This copies them to
```text
destpath/one.txt
destpath/two.txt
```
Not to
```text
destpath/sourcepath/one.txt
destpath/sourcepath/two.txt
```
If you are familiar with `rsync`, rclone always works as if you had
written a trailing `/` - meaning "copy the contents of this directory".
This applies to all commands and whether you are talking about the
source or destination.
See the [--no-traverse](/docs/#no-traverse) option for controlling
whether rclone lists the destination directory or not. Supplying this
option when copying a small number of files into a large destination
can speed transfers up greatly.
For example, if you have many files in /path/to/src but only a few of
them change every day, you can copy all the files which have changed
recently very efficiently like this:
```sh
rclone copy --max-age 24h --no-traverse /path/to/src remote:
```
Rclone will sync the modification times of files and directories if
the backend supports it. If metadata syncing is required then use the
`--metadata` flag.
Note that the modification time and metadata for the root directory
will **not** be synced. See [issue #7652](https://github.com/rclone/rclone/issues/7652)
for more info.
**Note**: Use the `-P`/`--progress` flag to view real-time transfer statistics.
**Note**: Use the `--dry-run` or the `--interactive`/`-i` flag to test without
copying anything.
## Logger Flags
The `--differ`, `--missing-on-dst`, `--missing-on-src`, `--match` and `--error`
flags write paths, one per line, to the file name (or stdout if it is `-`)
supplied. What they write is described in the help below. For example
`--differ` will write all paths which are present on both the source and
destination but different.
The `--combined` flag will write a file (or stdout) which contains all
file paths with a symbol and then a space and then the path to tell
you what happened to it. These are reminiscent of diff files.
- `= path` means path was found in source and destination and was identical
- `- path` means path was missing on the source, so only in the destination
- `+ path` means path was missing on the destination, so only in the source
- `* path` means path was present in source and destination but different.
- `! path` means there was an error reading or hashing the source or dest.
The `--dest-after` flag writes a list file using the same format flags
as [`lsf`](/commands/rclone_lsf/#synopsis) (including [customizable options
for hash, modtime, etc.](/commands/rclone_lsf/#synopsis))
Conceptually it is similar to rsync's `--itemize-changes`, but not identical
-- it should output an accurate list of what will be on the destination
after the command is finished.
When the `--no-traverse` flag is set, all logs involving files that exist only
on the destination will be incomplete or completely missing.
Note that these logger flags have a few limitations, and certain scenarios
are not currently supported:
- `--max-duration` / `CutoffModeHard`
- `--compare-dest` / `--copy-dest`
- server-side moves of an entire dir at once
- High-level retries, because there would be duplicates (use `--retries 1` to disable)
- Possibly some unusual error scenarios
Note also that each file is logged during execution, as opposed to after, so it
is most useful as a predictor of what SHOULD happen to each file
(which may or may not match what actually DID).
```
rclone copy source:path dest:path [flags]
```
## Options
```
--absolute Put a leading / in front of path names
--combined string Make a combined report of changes to this file
--create-empty-src-dirs Create empty source dirs on destination after copy
--csv Output in CSV format
--dest-after string Report all files that exist on the dest post-sync
--differ string Report all non-matching files to this file
-d, --dir-slash Append a slash to directory names (default true)
--dirs-only Only list directories
--error string Report all files with errors (hashing or reading) to this file
--files-only Only list files (default true)
-F, --format string Output format - see lsf help for details (default "p")
--hash h Use this hash when h is used in the format MD5|SHA-1|DropboxHash (default "md5")
-h, --help help for copy
--match string Report all matching files to this file
--missing-on-dst string Report all files missing from the destination to this file
--missing-on-src string Report all files missing from the source to this file
-s, --separator string Separator for the items in the format (default ";")
-t, --timeformat string Specify a custom time format - see docs for details (default: 2006-01-02 15:04:05)
```
Options shared with other commands are described next.
See the [global flags page](/flags/) for global options not listed here.
### Copy Options
Flags for anything which can copy a file
```text
--check-first Do all the checks before starting transfers
-c, --checksum Check for changes with size & checksum (if available, or fallback to size only)
--compare-dest stringArray Include additional server-side paths during comparison
--copy-dest stringArray Implies --compare-dest but also copies files from paths into destination
--cutoff-mode HARD|SOFT|CAUTIOUS Mode to stop transfers when reaching the max transfer limit HARD|SOFT|CAUTIOUS (default HARD)
--ignore-case-sync Ignore case when synchronizing
--ignore-checksum Skip post copy check of checksums
--ignore-existing Skip all files that exist on destination
--ignore-size Ignore size when skipping use modtime or checksum
-I, --ignore-times Don't skip items that match size and time - transfer all unconditionally
--immutable Do not modify files, fail if existing files have been modified
--inplace Download directly to destination file instead of atomic download to temp/rename
-l, --links Translate symlinks to/from regular files with a '.rclonelink' extension
--max-backlog int Maximum number of objects in sync or check backlog (default 10000)
--max-duration Duration Maximum duration rclone will transfer data for (default 0s)
--max-transfer SizeSuffix Maximum size of data to transfer (default off)
-M, --metadata If set, preserve metadata when copying objects
--modify-window Duration Max time diff to be considered the same (default 1ns)
--multi-thread-chunk-size SizeSuffix Chunk size for multi-thread downloads / uploads, if not set by filesystem (default 64Mi)
--multi-thread-cutoff SizeSuffix Use multi-thread downloads for files above this size (default 256Mi)
--multi-thread-streams int Number of streams to use for multi-thread downloads (default 4)
--multi-thread-write-buffer-size SizeSuffix In memory buffer size for writing when in multi-thread mode (default 128Ki)
--name-transform stringArray Transform paths during the copy process
--no-check-dest Don't check the destination, copy regardless
--no-traverse Don't traverse destination file system on copy
--no-update-dir-modtime Don't update directory modification times
--no-update-modtime Don't update destination modtime if files identical
--order-by string Instructions on how to order the transfers, e.g. 'size,descending'
--partial-suffix string Add partial-suffix to temporary file name when --inplace is not used (default ".partial")
--refresh-times Refresh the modtime of remote files
--server-side-across-configs Allow server-side operations (e.g. copy) to work across different configs
--size-only Skip based on size only, not modtime or checksum
--streaming-upload-cutoff SizeSuffix Cutoff for switching to chunked upload if file size is unknown, upload starts after reaching cutoff or when file ends (default 100Ki)
-u, --update Skip files that are newer on the destination
```
### Important Options
Important flags useful for most commands
```text
-n, --dry-run Do a trial run with no permanent changes
-i, --interactive Enable interactive mode
-v, --verbose count Print lots more stuff (repeat for more)
```
### Filter Options
Flags for filtering directory listings
```text
--delete-excluded Delete files on dest excluded from sync
--exclude stringArray Exclude files matching pattern
--exclude-from stringArray Read file exclude patterns from file (use - to read from stdin)
--exclude-if-present stringArray Exclude directories if filename is present
--files-from stringArray Read list of source-file names from file (use - to read from stdin)
--files-from-raw stringArray Read list of source-file names from file without any processing of lines (use - to read from stdin)
-f, --filter stringArray Add a file filtering rule
--filter-from stringArray Read file filtering patterns from a file (use - to read from stdin)
--hash-filter string Partition filenames by hash k/n or randomly @/n
--ignore-case Ignore case in filters (case insensitive)
--include stringArray Include files matching pattern
--include-from stringArray Read file include patterns from file (use - to read from stdin)
--max-age Duration Only transfer files younger than this in s or suffix ms|s|m|h|d|w|M|y (default off)
--max-depth int If set limits the recursion depth to this (default -1)
--max-size SizeSuffix Only transfer files smaller than this in KiB or suffix B|K|M|G|T|P (default off)
--metadata-exclude stringArray Exclude metadatas matching pattern
--metadata-exclude-from stringArray Read metadata exclude patterns from file (use - to read from stdin)
--metadata-filter stringArray Add a metadata filtering rule
--metadata-filter-from stringArray Read metadata filtering patterns from a file (use - to read from stdin)
--metadata-include stringArray Include metadatas matching pattern
--metadata-include-from stringArray Read metadata include patterns from file (use - to read from stdin)
--min-age Duration Only transfer files older than this in s or suffix ms|s|m|h|d|w|M|y (default off)
--min-size SizeSuffix Only transfer files bigger than this in KiB or suffix B|K|M|G|T|P (default off)
```
### Listing Options
Flags for listing directories
```text
--default-time Time Time to show if modtime is unknown for files and directories (default 2000-01-01T00:00:00Z)
--fast-list Use recursive list if available; uses more memory but fewer transactions
```
## See Also
<!-- markdownlint-capture -->
<!-- markdownlint-disable ul-style line-length -->
* [rclone](/commands/rclone/) - Show help for rclone commands, flags and backends.
<!-- markdownlint-restore -->
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