rclone/docs/content/commands/rclone_copy.md

---
date: 2017-03-18T11:19:45Z
title: "rclone copy"
slug: rclone_copy
url: /commands/rclone_copy/
---
## rclone copy

Copy files from source to dest, skipping already copied

### Synopsis



Copy the source to the destination.  Doesn't transfer
unchanged files, testing by size and modification time or
MD5SUM.  Doesn't delete files from the destination.

Note that it is always the contents of the directory that is synced,
not the directory so when source:path is a directory, it's the
contents of source:path that are copied, not the directory name and
contents.

If dest:path doesn't exist, it is created and the source:path contents
go there.

For example

    rclone copy source:sourcepath dest:destpath

Let's say there are two files in sourcepath

    sourcepath/one.txt
    sourcepath/two.txt

This copies them to

    destpath/one.txt
    destpath/two.txt

Not to

    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` option for controlling whether rclone lists
the destination directory or not.


```
rclone copy source:path dest:path
```

### Options inherited from parent commands

```
      --acd-templink-threshold int        Files >= this size will be downloaded via their tempLink. (default 9G)
      --acd-upload-wait-per-gb duration   Additional time per GB to wait after a failed complete upload to see if it appears. (default 3m0s)
      --ask-password                      Allow prompt for password for encrypted configuration. (default true)
      --b2-chunk-size int                 Upload chunk size. Must fit in memory. (default 96M)
      --b2-test-mode string               A flag string for X-Bz-Test-Mode header.
      --b2-upload-cutoff int              Cutoff for switching to chunked upload (default 190.735M)
      --b2-versions                       Include old versions in directory listings.
      --backup-dir string                 Make backups into hierarchy based in DIR.
      --buffer-size int                   Buffer size when copying files. (default 16M)
      --bwlimit BwTimetable               Bandwidth limit in kBytes/s, or use suffix b|k|M|G or a full timetable.
      --checkers int                      Number of checkers to run in parallel. (default 8)
  -c, --checksum                          Skip based on checksum & size, not mod-time & size
      --config string                     Config file. (default "/home/ncw/.rclone.conf")
      --contimeout duration               Connect timeout (default 1m0s)
  -L, --copy-links                        Follow symlinks and copy the pointed to item.
      --cpuprofile string                 Write cpu profile to file
      --crypt-show-mapping                For all files listed show how the names encrypt.
      --delete-after                      When synchronizing, delete files on destination after transfering
      --delete-before                     When synchronizing, delete files on destination before transfering
      --delete-during                     When synchronizing, delete files during transfer (default)
      --delete-excluded                   Delete files on dest excluded from sync
      --drive-auth-owner-only             Only consider files owned by the authenticated user. Requires drive-full-list.
      --drive-chunk-size int              Upload chunk size. Must a power of 2 >= 256k. (default 8M)
      --drive-formats string              Comma separated list of preferred formats for downloading Google docs. (default "docx,xlsx,pptx,svg")
      --drive-full-list                   Use a full listing for directory list. More data but usually quicker. (obsolete)
      --drive-list-chunk int              Size of listing chunk 100-1000. 0 to disable. (default 1000)
      --drive-skip-gdocs                  Skip google documents in all listings.
      --drive-upload-cutoff int           Cutoff for switching to chunked upload (default 8M)
      --drive-use-trash                   Send files to the trash instead of deleting permanently.
      --dropbox-chunk-size int            Upload chunk size. Max 150M. (default 128M)
  -n, --dry-run                           Do a trial run with no permanent changes
      --dump-auth                         Dump HTTP headers with auth info
      --dump-bodies                       Dump HTTP headers and bodies - may contain sensitive info
      --dump-filters                      Dump the filters to the output
      --dump-headers                      Dump HTTP headers - may contain sensitive info
      --exclude stringArray               Exclude files matching pattern
      --exclude-from stringArray          Read exclude patterns from file
      --files-from stringArray            Read list of source-file names from file
  -f, --filter stringArray                Add a file-filtering rule
      --filter-from stringArray           Read filtering patterns from a file
      --ignore-checksum                   Skip post copy check of checksums.
      --ignore-existing                   Skip all files that exist on destination
      --ignore-size                       Ignore size when skipping use mod-time or checksum.
  -I, --ignore-times                      Don't skip files that match size and time - transfer all files
      --include stringArray               Include files matching pattern
      --include-from stringArray          Read include patterns from file
      --log-file string                   Log everything to this file
      --log-level string                  Log level DEBUG|INFO|NOTICE|ERROR (default "INFO")
      --low-level-retries int             Number of low level retries to do. (default 10)
      --max-age string                    Don't transfer any file older than this in s or suffix ms|s|m|h|d|w|M|y
      --max-depth int                     If set limits the recursion depth to this. (default -1)
      --max-size int                      Don't transfer any file larger than this in k or suffix b|k|M|G (default off)
      --memprofile string                 Write memory profile to file
      --min-age string                    Don't transfer any file younger than this in s or suffix ms|s|m|h|d|w|M|y
      --min-size int                      Don't transfer any file smaller than this in k or suffix b|k|M|G (default off)
      --modify-window duration            Max time diff to be considered the same (default 1ns)
      --no-check-certificate              Do not verify the server SSL certificate. Insecure.
      --no-gzip-encoding                  Don't set Accept-Encoding: gzip.
      --no-traverse                       Don't traverse destination file system on copy.
      --no-update-modtime                 Don't update destination mod-time if files identical.
      --old-sync-method                   Temporary flag to select old sync method
  -x, --one-file-system                   Don't cross filesystem boundaries.
      --onedrive-chunk-size int           Above this size files will be chunked - must be multiple of 320k. (default 10M)
      --onedrive-upload-cutoff int        Cutoff for switching to chunked upload - must be <= 100MB (default 10M)
  -q, --quiet                             Print as little stuff as possible
      --retries int                       Retry operations this many times if they fail (default 3)
      --s3-acl string                     Canned ACL used when creating buckets and/or storing objects in S3
      --s3-storage-class string           Storage class to use when uploading S3 objects (STANDARD|REDUCED_REDUNDANCY|STANDARD_IA)
      --size-only                         Skip based on size only, not mod-time or checksum
      --stats duration                    Interval between printing stats, e.g 500ms, 60s, 5m. (0 to disable) (default 1m0s)
      --stats-unit string                 Show data rate in stats as either 'bits' or 'bytes'/s (default "bytes")
      --suffix string                     Suffix for use with --backup-dir.
      --swift-chunk-size int              Above this size files will be chunked into a _segments container. (default 5G)
      --syslog                            Use Syslog for logging
      --syslog-facility string            Facility for syslog, eg KERN,USER,... (default "DAEMON")
      --timeout duration                  IO idle timeout (default 5m0s)
      --track-renames                     When synchronizing, track file renames and do a server side move if possible
      --transfers int                     Number of file transfers to run in parallel. (default 4)
  -u, --update                            Skip files that are newer on the destination.
  -v, --verbose count[=-1]                Print lots more stuff (repeat for more)
```

### SEE ALSO
* [rclone](/commands/rclone/)	 - Sync files and directories to and from local and remote object stores - v1.36

###### Auto generated by spf13/cobra on 18-Mar-2017