R: Copies a file atomically

copyFile {R.utils} | R Documentation

## Copies a file atomically

### Description

Copies a file atomically, by first copying to a temporary file and then renaming that file.

### Usage

    ## Default S3 method:
    copyFile(srcPathname, destPathname, skip=FALSE, overwrite=FALSE, ..., validate=TRUE,
      verbose=FALSE)

### Arguments

`srcPathname` | The source file to be copied.
`destPathname` | The destination file to be created. If an emphexisting directory, then the destination file becomes `file.path(destPathname, basename(srcPathname))`.
`skip, overwrite` | If a destination file does not exist, these arguments have no effect. If such a file exists and `skip` is `TRUE`, then no copying is attempted and `FALSE` is returned (indicating that no copying was made). If such a file exists, both `skip` and `overwrite` are `FALSE` then an exception is thrown. If a destination file exists, `skip` is `FALSE` and `overwrite` is `TRUE`, then it is overwritten and `TRUE` is returned. If the copying/overwriting failed, for instance due to non sufficient file permissions, an informative exception is thrown.
`...` | Additional named arguments passed to `file.copy`(). Non-named or unknown arguments are ignored.
`validate` | If `TRUE`, validation of the copied file is applied, otherwise not.
`verbose` | See `Verbose`.

### Details

If the source file does not exists (or is not a file), then an informative exception is thrown.

If the source and destination pathnames are the same, it is not safe to copy (which can lead to either corrupt or lost files) and an informative exception is thrown.

If (and only if) the file is successfully copied and argument `validate` is `TRUE`, then this method also asserts that the file size of the destination matches that of the source, otherwise an informative exception is thrown.

### Value

Returns a `logical` indicating whether a successful file copy was completed or not, or equivalently. In other words, `TRUE` is returned if the file was successfully copied, and `FALSE` if not. If an error occurs, an informative exception is thrown. If the error occurs while renaming the temporary file to the final name, the temporary file will remain in the destination directory.

### Author(s)

Henrik Bengtsson

### See Also

`file.copy()`.

[Package R.utils version 2.7.0 Index]