I have discovered that the cp command in Terminal does not support the -u flag which will copy files from one directory to another but only if the source file is newer version of the file or if the file does not exist in the destination directory.
Does anybody know how to do this at all?
Many thanks
Use rsync
You are thinking of the GNU cp command commonly found in Linux distributions (cp on other Unix platforms does not have a -u option, such as Solaris, AIX, Mac OS X, etc...).
However, if you really want cp -u, you can get the GNU sources and build your own cp command, although I strongly suggest NOT replacing the Mac OS X cp command, but rather put your version in a different directory and include that directory in your PATH before /bin
As Tony T1 suggests you can get the copy only newer files via rsync, or use a utility such as Carbon Copy Cloner that uses rsync under the GUI to do its transfer work (CCC can be configured to just copy select files and folders, besides its more common disk cloning services).
copy newer files only
