cp-Error: dest is not a directory (too many sources)

Node version (or tell us if you’re using electron or some other framework):

node -v v12.16.1

ShellJS version (the most recent version/Github branch you see the bug on):

0.8.4

Operating system:

Windows & Linux (Docker Node:10.21.0-buster)

Description of the bug:

We try to use the cp command for a bigger amount of files in a deep Folder structure (~8900 files). It returns with exit code 1 and error message cp: dest is not a directory (too many sources). It only crashes, if the whole tree has to be copied. If most of the files are already there and it has to move only a few missing ones, it still works on that source-directory.

At the moment it’s not possible to use shelljs for our folder tree. This result is also equal on both OS - windows and unix. If we do not use shelljs, but the bash command cp for the same directory, that works without any problem. I guess it might be some memory or javascript problem, but could not figure out.

[nfischer]

That error message suggests the dist/ folder doesn’t already exist. cp doesn’t know to create that for you, so you need to create that first yourself:

shell.mkdir('dist/'); // this will create "dist/"
shell.cp('-r', 'src/public/', 'dist/'); // this will create "dist/public/"

Alternatively, this works too:

shell.mkdir('dist/');
// this also creates "dist/public/", although you could optionally name it "dist/<whatever you want>/"
shell.cp('-r', 'src/public/', 'dist/public/');

[nfischer]

It seems like shell.cp() is working as expected, so I’m going to close this. Let me know if you have any suggestions for whether this needs to be clarified in documentation.