Installing on AIX from MetaCpan I've run into a module that uses the cp command with the -a option.  Linux manpage says it is an archive option.  AIX does not appear to support the -a option.

Is there a open version of cp in the toolbox that supports this option?

Thanks for you assistance.

Yes, you can install coreutils rpm from AIX Toolbox , which provides open source version of cp. 

After you installed coreutils and before you call CPAN or this module you should either:

• temporarily change your PATH variable and include /opt/freeware/bin as your first directory into PATH
• create an alias cp to /opt/freeware/bin/cp and unalias it later after you don't need it
• patch the module to use /opt/freeware/bin/cp directly

The cp command is a powerful tool for copying files and directories in Linux. It supports various options, including the -a (archive) option, commonly used to preserve file attributes, symbolic links, and timestamps during recursive copying. However, this option is not universally available on all Unix-like systems, such as AIX.

To address the issue:

• In Linux, you can copy files and directories using the -a option, as explained in detail here: Copy Files and Directories in Linux Using the cp Command.
• For AIX users, the -a option is not supported natively. Instead, you can use cp -pr to mimic the behavior of cp -a.

For more advanced use cases and examples of the cp command in Linux, refer to the Vultr documentation linked above.