Mac OS X 10.1: About Improving SMB File Transfer Speed with cp or CpMac

Mac OS X permits normal file transfers with SMB server volumes via the Finder. For information about accessing an SMB server, see technical document 106471: "How to Connect to an SMB Volume (Microsoft Windows)".

When transferring very large files, you may wish to enhance file transfer rates by using cp or CpMac, which is included with Developer Tools. You must install the complete Developer Tools package to use CpMac.

CpMac is required before using Terminal to copy any application or file with a resource fork.

Follow these steps to install CpMac. (You only need to do this one time.)

1. Insert the Mac OS X Developers Tools CD. Note: If you do not have access to a Developer Tools CD, a CD image is available from the Apple Developer Connection (http://www.apple.com/developer/).
2. Double-click "Developer.pkg"
3. When the Installer window appears, click the padlock button and enter your Admin password.
4. Install Developer Tools. Note: 513 MB of disk space is required for installation

Copying file(s) using Terminal

if you are copying files that do not have resource forks, such as plain text files, you should use cp. If you are copying files that have resource forks, or if you are not sure, you should use CpMac. Instructions for both commands follow.

Copy files using cp

1. Open Terminal.
2. Type: cp <source file location> <target location>/<name of file>
3. Press Return.

Example: You would use this single Terminal command to copy a file named "List.txt" from the Home directory of a user name "Jane" to a folder named "Janes" on an SMB volume named "SMB_stuff":

% cp [space] /Users/Jane/List.txt [space] smb://SMB_stuff/Janes/List.txt

Copy files using CpMac

1. Open Terminal.
2. Type: /Developer/Tools/CpMac <source file location> <target location>/<name of file>
3. Press Return.

Example: You would use this single Terminal command to copy a file named "List.txt" from the Home directory of a user name "Jane" to a folder named "Janes" on an SMB volume named "SMB_stuff":

% /Developer/Tools/CpMac [space] /Users/Jane/List.txt [space] smb://SMB_stuff/Janes/List.txt


Note: This article contains information about Apple Developer Tools software. AppleCare does not provide usage support for Apple Developer Tools software. Paid support for Apple Developer Tools software is available at http://developer.apple.com.