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When I copy some directory (dir) recursively with sudo in bash it copies just the first level of the dir hierarchy, but when used without sudo it copies the dir with all its subdirs, though commands in command-line have the difference only in the presence of sudo.

Why does this happen?

For example:

k@l:/$ tree
|  |
|  |__b
|     | 
|     |__1.htm   
k@l:/$ sudo cp -r /a/b /c/d
k@l:/$ cd /c
k@l:/c$ ls
k@l:/c$ cd d
bash: cd: /c/d: Permission denied
k@l:/c$ tree
|__d [error opening dir]

1 directory, 0 files
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There are error messages on your listing. You perhaps want to learn their meaning first. –  n.m. Jul 26 '11 at 5:11
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migrated from stackoverflow.com Jul 26 '11 at 8:40

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1 Answer

up vote 2 down vote accepted

Maybe /c/d had permissions 700 with a different owner. Try sudo chmod -R 755 /c/d.

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+1: Or you could try 'sudo chown -R me /c/d'. –  Jonathan Leffler Jul 26 '11 at 6:50
Yup, that'd work too. –  jman Jul 26 '11 at 7:02
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