Using cp to copy only new files

[Leslie Mikesell]

In article <2620002 at hpcc01.HP.COM> lthompso at hpcc01.HP.COM (Larry L. Thompson) writes:
>>I would like to run a simple shell program to archive data files from
>>my hard disk to an optical disk.  I would like for the archived files
>>to be directly usable from the archive (i.e. tar is no good).  Hence,
>>what I would like is some way to use the cp command with a qualifier
>>that says don't re-copy files that already exist - only new ones.

>OK this is a two step process. You first need to touch a file somewhere
>that will be used as the reference data for filtering files that are newer
>than itself. 
>find . -newer <filename> -hidden -print | cpio -pudmvx <destination>

Actually, cpio will already do exactly what is desired if you leave
out the -u option.

find . -print |cpio -pudmv dest_dir
 will copy all files except those that are newer or the same age on
the destination directory or where there are restrictive permissions.

Les Mikesell
  les at chinet.chi.il.us