how to copy a directory (folder and its contents) to another directory?

Question

Here is my file structure:

- someDirA
  -  folderOne
  -  folderTwo
     - somefile.txt
     - someotherfile.txt

- someDirB
  -  somefolder

What I want 'someDirB' to look like:

- someDirB
  - somefolder
  - folderTwo
    - somefile.txt
    - someotherfile.txt

I just want to copy someDirA's folderTwo(folder and all its contents) into someDirB. Both directories are in separate paths.

Solution 1

cp -r /path/to/someDirA/folderTwo /path/to/someDirB/

The -r option to cp tells it to recurse on directories, copying its contents.

Solution 2

You can use cp to copy files and directories:

cp -r /path/to/someDirA/folderTwo /path/to/someDirB

The -r option is needed when copying directories.

Alternatively, you can use rsync:

rsync -a  /path/to/someDirA/folderTwo /path/to/someDirB

Comments

[Admin]

You might find cp -a useful, as it adds to -r extra options to preserve file attributes in the copied files. Also cp -ua will copy only updated files if you need to repeat the copy.

[dave]

see thats the problem, i the folder i'm copying is not in the same directory as the folder i'm trying to copy too. Both someDirA/folderTwo and someDirB are in separate paths...just like how i posted above..

[ethanwu10]

@dave then just specify the paths to the directories... I will update my answer.

[John1024]

If it's a toss-up, give the answer mark to ethanwu10: he was 30 seconds faster than me.

[John1024]

The OP only wanted folderTwo copied. This would also copy folderOne.