pass output as an argument for cp in bash [duplicate]

Solution 1:

It would be:

cp `ls -SF | grep -v / | head -5` Directory

assuming that the pipeline is correct. The backticks substitute in the line the output of the commands inside it.

You can also make your tests:

cp `echo a b c` Directory

will copy all a, b, and c into Directory.

I would do:

cp $(ls -SF | grep -v / | head -5) Directory

xargs would probably be the best answer though.

ls -SF | grep -v / | head -5 | xargs -I{} cp "{}" Directory