http://www.fmi.uni-passau.de/archive/doc/unix/unixhelp/Unixhelp/tasks_cp.html (Einblicke ins Internet, 10/1995)To copy a directory use the command:
cp -r directory1 directory2
This copies directory1 and everything that it contains to directory2. The directory is created if it does not exist.
If directory2 does exist then directory1 is created as a subdirectory within it.