Copy separate file, with possible new name

[tobiastom]

I'd like to copy an existing file to a new path, with a possible new name. The idea would be something like

cpy package.json Build/$npm_package_name-$npm_package_version.json

I think we would need an option for that. Or we could check for a trailing slash, like cp does. I would prefer the later one, I'm not sure if that's a good idea because it might break existing use cases.

[schnittstabil]

About cp: as far as I know it's not the trailing slash, cp checks if the last argument is an existing directory - but I think that doesn't really matter.

[sindresorhus]

Sure, if cp does it. But I would prefer to rely on "cp checks if the last argument is an existing directory" and not trailing slash. @schnittstabil Do you think makes sense adding this?

[schnittstabil]

A nice-to-have feature, especially for npm scripts.

But a directory check reminds me of nonpreemptive batch processing and may cause unpredictable results in gulp or similar contexts, e.g.:

1. compile *.less to assets/app.css and
2. cpy('image.jpg', 'assets', …)
   This means, if the assets directory doesn't exists, the order of the two tasks become important.

Similar problems may arise in the following use cases:

1. cpy(['image1.jpg', 'image2.jpg'], 'assets', …)
2. cpy('image*.jpg', 'assets', …)
   In the first case I would expect that cpy will create the assets directory. But in the second case, especially if only image1.jpg exists?

I could imagine some more flexible solutions for this problem:

cpy package.json --replace $npm_package_name-$npm_package_version.json Build/ // or --rename
cpy package.json -r $npm_package_name-$npm_package_version.json Build/ // flag style

This may also allow us to provide the following in the future:

cpy --regex '/image\(.*\).jpg/' --replace '$1.jpg' 'images/image*.jpg' assets

[tobiastom]

I would love this flexibility! Right now I have separate npm scripts for single files.

Rename might me a better name, as nothing is replaced.

[schnittstabil]

My first idea was --search and --replace, but --search is somewhat misleading…

[sindresorhus]

@kevva Thoughts on this?

[schnittstabil]

One use-case I've found is not very intuitive:

# this won't work:
$ cpy src -r dest

# but this:
$ cpy src -r dest .

[sindresorhus]

$ cpy src -r dest .

This doesn't look valid. ?

[schnittstabil]

@sindresorhus: that is handled by meow, or more precisely minimist.

$ cpy src -r dest . is the same as $ cpy -r src dest . $ cpy -r dest src .:

> meow({ argv:['src', '-r', 'dest', '.'] });
{ input: [ 'src', '.' ],
  flags: { r: 'dest' },
  …
}

[sindresorhus]

Good point. I'd say PR welcome on this. I prefer --rename over --replace.

[tobiastom]

Works like a charm. Thank you very much @schnittstabil.