How to copy a file to multiple directories using t

Question

Is it possible to copy a single file to multiple directories using the cp command ?

I tried the following , which did not work:

cp file1 /foo/ /bar/
cp file1 {/foo/,/bar}

I know it's possible using a for loop, or find. But is it possible using the gnu cp command?

Answer 1

Suppose you want to copy fileName.txt to all sub-directories within present working directory.

1. Get all sub-directories names through ls and save them to some temporary file say, allFolders.txt

   ls > allFolders.txt
   

2. Print the list and pass it to command xargs.

   cat allFolders.txt | xargs -n 1 cp fileName.txt
   

Answer 2

Wildcards also work with Roberts code

echo ./fs*/* | xargs -n 1 cp test 

Answer 3

For example if you are in the parent directory of you destination folders you can do:

for i in $(ls); do cp sourcefile $i; done