What is cp: cannot stat error in Unix, I get this error when trying to copy thing from one folder to another

If your source directory is set in quotes, then make sure that the * is outside the quotes, i.e.

cp "source/"* dest

or

cp "source"/* dest

cannot stat = file/dir does not exist. Check the path first.

And, you say you want to copy /mock but the error message says mock. Show the real code first.

When I test in ubuntu, cp (GNU coreutils) 8.28, I have no problem with copying all files under a dir to another dir, when both paths are correct.

root@DESKTOP-9NHNV2I:~# cp /root/temp/* /root
root@DESKTOP-9NHNV2I:~# ls
temp  test.txt  test2.txt  test3333.txt

It's an odd thing about the unix system that glob expansion (aka use of the "*") is done by the shell, and not by the program you are calling, and furthermore, if the glob doesn't match anything, instead of expanding to nothing, it expands to itself and passes that to the program. So the cp command sees literally "/mock/*" which doesn't exist, because you have no file called "*". Somewhat perversely if you had a file called "*" it would dutifully copy it without complaining.

cp is used in unix/linux for copy

cp /mock/* ~/projweek this means copy from /mock folder all files to folder projweek that resides in root

This means cp: cannot stat ‘mock/*’: No such file or directory unable to copy all files from mock folder because file or directory not exists on relevant path

cp: cannot stat ‘mock/*’: No such file or director

1. Check that the files exist on the path.
2. Also to copy all the files in a folder to another location, use . operator like: cp /source/. /dest/