Advanced Copy Command – Shows Progress Bar While Copying/Moving Files in Linux

Advanced-Copy is a powerful command line program that is very much similar, but a little modified version of the original cp command and mv tools.

This modified version of the cp command adds a progress bar along with the total time taken to complete while copying large files from one location to another.

This additional feature is very useful especially while copying large files, and this gives an idea to the user about the status of copy process and how long it takes to complete.

Install Advanced-Copy Command in Linux

The only way to install the Advanced-Copy utility in Linux systems is by building from sources using the following single curl command, which will download, patch, compile coreutils and generate the files: ./advcpmv/advcp and ./advcpmv/advmv.

# curl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jarun/advcpmv/master/install.sh --create-dirs -o ./advcpmv/install.sh && (cd advcpmv && sh install.sh)

You might get the following error, during the installation process.

checking whether mknod can create fifo without root privileges... configure: error: in `/root/advcpmv/coreutils-9.1':
configure: error: you should not run configure as root (set FORCE_UNSAFE_CONFIGURE=1 in environment to bypass this check)
See `config.log' for more details

Run the following command on the terminal to fix that error and run the curl command again.

# export FORCE_UNSAFE_CONFIGURE=1
# curl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jarun/advcpmv/master/install.sh --create-dirs -o ./advcpmv/install.sh && (cd advcpmv && sh install.sh)

Once, the installation completes, two new commands are created under ./advcpmv/advcp and ./advcpmv/advmv. You need to replace your original cp and mv commands with these two new commands to get the progress bar while copying files.

# mv ./advcpmv/advcp /usr/local/bin/cp
# mv ./advcpmv/advmv /usr/local/bin/mv

Note: If you don’t want to copy these commands under standard system paths, you can still run them from the source directory like “./advcpmv/advcp” and “./advcpmv/advmv or create new commands as shown”.

# mv ./advcpmv/advcp /usr/local/bin/cpg
# mv ./advcpmv/advmv /usr/local/bin/mvg

Show Progress Bar While Copying Files and Directories

If you want the progress bar to appear all the time while copying files and directories, you need to add the following lines to your ~/.bashrc file.

# echo alias cp '/usr/local/bin/advcp -g' >> ~/.bashrc
# echo alias mv '/usr/local/bin/advmv -g' >> ~/.bashrc

You need to log out and log in again to get this to work correctly.

How to Use Advanced-Copy Command in Linux

The command is the same, the only change is adding the “-g” or “–progress-bar” option with the cp command. The “-R” option is for copying directories recursively.

Copy Files with Progress Bar

Here are example screen-shots of a copy process using the advanced copy command.

# cp -gR ubuntu-20.04.3-desktop-amd64.iso /home/tecmint/
OR
# cp -R --progress-bar ubuntu-20.04.3-desktop-amd64.iso /home/tecmint/

Move Files with Progress Bar

Here is an example of the ‘mv‘ command with a screenshot.

# mv --progress-bar Songs/ /data/
OR
# mv -g Songs/ /data/

Please remember, original commands are not overwritten if you ever need to use them or you’re not happy with the new progress bar and want to revert back to the original cp and mv commands. You can call them via /usr/bin/cp or /usr/bin/mv.

I really impressed with this new progress bar feature, at least I would know some information about copy operation time and exactly what’s going on.

Overall I can say, it is a really good tool to have in your pocket, especially when you are spending lots of time copying and moving files through the command line.