---
name: "e2cp"
section: "1"
platform: "linux"
package: "e2tools"
version: "0.1.2-1"
release: "Debian 13 (Trixie)"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/e2cp"
---

# e2cp(1)

copies files from/to an e2fs filesystem

## NAME

e2cp - copies files from/to an e2fs filesystem

## SYNOPSIS

**e2cp** \[*options*\] *files... dest*

## DESCRIPTION

The **e2cp** command copies files to/from an e2fs filesystem from/to the machine's filesystem.

## OPTIONS

A single \`-' (dash) can be used instead of a file name to indicate standard input/output.

- **-0**

  Input lines terminated by a null character.

- **-a**

  Absolute directory names - create directories instead of just copying into the destination. Only valid for copying into an ext2fs filesystem.

- **-d *dest\_dir***

  Destination of files to be copied. May be in the ext2fs filesystem or the host filesystem.

- **-G *gid***

  Set the default group to gid.

- **-O *uid***

  Set the default file owner to uid.

- **-p**

  Preserve host file attributes (permissions, times, etc.) when copying files.

- **-P *mode***

  Set the file permissions (ie 755, 666).

- **-s *src\_dir***

  The source of the files to be copied.

- **-v**

  Be verbose.

## EXAMPLES

Copy a file and use the default permission and ownership of the current user:

    e2cp README.txt /tmp/boot.img:/tmp

Do the same thing, but keep permissions & ownership:

    e2cp -p README.txt /tmp/boot.img:/tmp

Dump a file to standard out:

    e2cp /tmp/boot.img:/tmp/README.txt - \| wc

Get a file from standard input and put it on an unmounted partition:

    tar cf - /data/logs\|gzip\| e2cp - /dev/hdb1:/backup/logs.tar.gz

Copy the files from one directory and put them under another directory on an unmounted partition, keeping the original paths, permissions & ownership:

    find /data -type f \|tee filelist \| e2cp -apv -d /dev/hdb1:/mirror

Copy files from a directory on an unmounted partition to a local directory (Note: this does not recreate the directories in the local filesystem, yet).  The list of files are read from standard input:

    e2cp -pv -s /dev/hdb1:/mirror -d /data2 \< filelist

Copy a file to a file system and make the group and ownership root

    e2cp -G 0 -O 0 myfile /tmp/boot.img/boot/rootfile

## SEE ALSO

[**e2tools**(7)](/e2tools/7.md), [**e2ln**(1)](/e2ln/1.md), [**e2ls**(1)](/e2ls/1.md), [**e2mkdir**(1)](/e2mkdir/1.md), [**e2mv**(1)](/e2mv/1.md), [**e2rm**(1)](/e2rm/1.md), [**e2tail**(1)](/e2tail/1.md).

## AUTHOR

The **e2tools** were written by Keith Sheffield \<sheff@pobox.com\>.

This manual page was written by Lucas Wall \<lwall@debian.org\>, for the Debian project (but may be used by others).