How to copy one file to multiple filenames?

The command touch {jan,feb,mar}-{Rep.xls,graph.xls} creates files I can't open:

feb-graph.xls jan-Rep.xls feb-Rep.xls mar-graph.xls jan-graph.xls mar-Rep.xls

So I created one template file 1.ods, saved with OO-Calc. Then I tried to copy this file using cp again in the same fashion as cp:

cp 1.ods {jan,feb,mar}{Rep.ods,graph.ods}

but that doesnt work:

cp: target `margraph.ods' is not a directory

How do I copy a single file to multiple files?

Solution 1:

Combine cat (retrieves the contents of a file) with tee (writes the content away to the files specified in the arguments):

cat 1.ods | tee {jan,feb,mar}-{Rep,graph}.ods >/dev/null

Alternative using shell redirection:

tee {jan,feb,mar}-{Rep,graph}.ods >/dev/null < 1.ods

In both cases, > /dev/null is a redirection that discards the duplicated contents (tee writes its input to each parameter and standard output).

How about,

for file in {jan,feb,mar}-{Rep.xls,graph.xls}
do
  cp 1.ods $file
done