@findex copy-directory
@kbd{M-x copy-directory} copies directories, similar to the
-@command{cp -r} shell command. If @var{new} is an existing directory,
-it creates a copy of the @var{old} directory and puts it in @var{new}.
-If @var{new} is not an existing directory, it copies all the contents
-of @var{old} into a new directory named @var{new}.
+@command{cp -r} shell command. If @var{new} is a directory name, it
+creates a copy of the @var{old} directory and puts it in @var{new}.
+Otherwise it copies all the contents of @var{old} into a new directory
+named @var{new}.
@cindex renaming files
@findex rename-file
@deffn Command copy-directory dirname newname &optional keep-time parents copy-contents
This command copies the directory named @var{dirname} to
-@var{newname}. If @var{newname} names an existing directory,
+@var{newname}. If @var{newname} is a directory name,
@var{dirname} will be copied to a subdirectory there.
+@xref{Directory Names}.
It always sets the file modes of the copied files to match the
corresponding original file.
The fifth argument @var{copy-contents}, if non-@code{nil}, means to
copy the contents of @var{dirname} directly into @var{newname} if the
-latter is an existing directory, instead of copying @var{dirname} into
+latter is a directory name, instead of copying @var{dirname} into
it as a subdirectory.
@end deffn
call like (rename-file C D) that used the old, undocumented behavior
can be written as (rename-file C (file-name-as-directory D)), a
formulation portable to both older and newer versions of Emacs.
-Affected functions include add-name-to-file, copy-file,
-make-symbolic-link, and rename-file.
+Affected functions include add-name-to-file, copy-directory,
+copy-file, make-symbolic-link, and rename-file.
\f
* Lisp Changes in Emacs 26.1
create parent directories if they don't exist. Interactively,
this happens by default.
-If NEWNAME names an existing directory, copy DIRECTORY as a
-subdirectory there. However, if called from Lisp with a non-nil
-optional argument COPY-CONTENTS, copy the contents of DIRECTORY
-directly into NEWNAME instead."
+If NEWNAME is a directory name, copy DIRECTORY as a subdirectory
+there. However, if called from Lisp with a non-nil optional
+argument COPY-CONTENTS, copy the contents of DIRECTORY directly
+into NEWNAME instead."
(interactive
(let ((dir (read-directory-name
"Copy directory: " default-directory default-directory t nil)))
;; Compute target name.
(setq directory (directory-file-name (expand-file-name directory))
- newname (directory-file-name (expand-file-name newname)))
+ newname (expand-file-name newname))
- (cond ((not (file-directory-p newname))
- ;; If NEWNAME is not an existing directory, create it;
+ (cond ((not (directory-name-p newname))
+ ;; If NEWNAME is not a directory name, create it;
;; that is where we will copy the files of DIRECTORY.
(make-directory newname parents))
- ;; If NEWNAME is an existing directory and COPY-CONTENTS
+ ;; If NEWNAME is a directory name and COPY-CONTENTS
;; is nil, copy into NEWNAME/[DIRECTORY-BASENAME].
((not copy-contents)
- (setq newname (concat
- (file-name-as-directory newname)
- (file-name-nondirectory
- (directory-file-name directory))))
+ (setq newname (concat newname
+ (file-name-nondirectory directory)))
(and (file-exists-p newname)
(not (file-directory-p newname))
(error "Cannot overwrite non-directory %s with a directory"