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I'm getting an error that I can't make heads or tails of when trying to use cp through xargs

grep -l -r .mp4 * | xargs cp -t ./Destination

Results in

cp: invalid option -- 'G'

The goal here is to search through the current folder, and copy all mp4 files to the folder Destination. I don't understand where the error message is getting the 'G' from though, as I'm not calling any option G, or even using the character G at all in the CP argument!

Can anyone help me understand what's going on here please? If it makes a difference i'm using the stock terminal window in a pretty fresh install of Ubuntu 18.04.3

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  • Is there a file whose name starts with -G? Do you still get the error with [...] | xargs cp -t -- ./Destination? Commented Feb 7, 2020 at 16:07
  • Try doing xargs cp -t -- ./Destination Commented Feb 7, 2020 at 16:10
  • what if you substitute "xargs cp...." with "xargs echo"? Commented Feb 7, 2020 at 16:11
  • Thanks for the suggestions, sadly no dice.Using [...] | xargs cp -t -- ./Destination just gives me cp: failed to access '--': No such file or directory Also no, no file starts with -G Commented Feb 7, 2020 at 16:58
  • Xargs echo gives me a readout of the filenames. The only thing I can think of that seems potentially odd here is that the filenames all have spaces in them, could that be causing issues? Commented Feb 7, 2020 at 16:59

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@steeldriver figured this out in the comments of the main question. The issue was being caused by whitespace in the filenames and modifying the command to grep -l -r -Z '.mp4' * | xargs -0 cp -t ./Test -- sorted it!

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