cp command: Overwrite confirmation with file diff

Solution 1:

Placing alias commands in your bash profile will gain you partial overwrite protection. As others mentioned in your comments, you will need to write a script add the diff function.

I placed the commands below in my ~/.bash_profile.

Bash on macOS determines what file is your bash profile in this order:

1. ~/.bash_profile

2. ~/.bash_login

3. ~/.profile

These commands tell cp, mv and rm to give you a warning when a file is to be overwritten or deleted:

alias cp='cp -i'
alias mv='mv -i'
alias rm='rm -i'
# Placing a blank after sudo causes alias substitution 
# for sudo's inner commands . See Gordon Davisson's comments below for 
# details. 
alias sudo='sudo '

This example, assumes you have placed the above commands in your bash profile.

mac $ touch a
mac $ touch aa
mac $ cp aa a
overwrite a? (y/n [n]) n
not overwritten
mac RC=1 😱  $ rm a
remove a? 
mac $ mv aa a
overwrite a? (y/n [n]) n
not overwritten
# demonstrate sudo protection
mac $ touch inin
mac $ sudo cp inin hihi
overwrite hihi? (y/n [n]) n
not overwritten
mac RC=1 😱  $ sudo mv  inin hihi
overwrite hihi? (y/n [n]) n
not overwritten
mac $ sudo rm inin hihi
remove inin? y
remove hihi? y
mac $ 

These alias command do not protect you in all circumstances like when you invoke a new shell or run cp, mv or rm from within other commands like find.

P.S.: The aliases mentioned above use the same name as the original command, thereby shadowing it. To access the original un-aliased command, prepend it with a \ character (E.g., \cp, \mv, \rm etc.).