OT (ish): How to copy hidden files/directories

[Don Buchholz]

Robert P. J. Day wrote:
> On Sun, 10 Oct 2004, Don Buchholz wrote:
> 
>> To move only hidden (dot-) files/folders to another directory...
>>
>>   # cp -pr .??* newdir
>>
>> Why use ".??*" ...
>>  * the initial "." indicates a 'hidden' file (or dot-file in Unix 
>> parlance)
>>  * the "??" match at least two characters ... this keeps the pattern from
>>    matching ".." which is the parent-directory
>>  * the "*" match any number (from zero to a-lot!) of characters
> 
> 
> which, as i pointed out earlier, won't pick up a file named ".a".
> 

Good point.  I just subscribed this morning, so I didn't see
that post.  The solution you posted

       $ cp -r * .[!.]* <destdir>

does solve that problem.

To be totally pedantic, though, ".[!.]*" won't match a file named
"..foofoo".  So, for completeness, we need two patterns:

       $ cp -pr .[!.]* ..?* <destdir>


- Don