Copy all files from one location to another in Linux, without copying the directory itself

Question

I want to copy some or all files from a directory test/A/ to directory test/B/, but without copying directory A itself.

I tried the command cp -R test/A/ test/B, but it copies the directory and the files as well and become test/B/A/…

Answer 1

When you specify test/A/, you tell Bash to copy the directory itself.

To copy only the contents of a directory, use the * glob:

cp -R test/A/* test/B

Here, * will match all files in A, except hidden ones prefixed with a dot, e.g. .htaccess. To include these as well with a *, call shopt -s dotglob before.

Answer 2

to get an identical copy locally or remote I would prefer rsync over cp. This gives you much finer control over what should be copied or even deleted either on source or destination if so desired. And by the way fixes issues with hidden files (aka .*). Basic usage is as simple as with cp though.

to copy a directory A and it's contents to B use:

rsync -va test/A test/B

to copy the contents of directory A (including hidden files) to B use:

rsync -va test/A/ test/B

if B does not exist it's created