Aside: I'm not sure the reason I want to do this is important, but I'll mention that it is for backup purposes, and for that reason I want to use the -a, -u, and -x options (i.e., -aux) with cp.
Aside: in reading / skimming the man page for cp today I came across the -t and -T options which I was not previously aware of -- maybe they are the key to this, but I'd like to understand how to do it without those options. Further aside: I also tried to do some more googling (ddg'ing) including looking for cp on Greg's Wiki, but my google foo wasn't good enough to really get to the point (either on Greg's wiki or anywhere else). To me there are two different situations, and I'll try to explain them by examples: Example 1: sometimes I want to copy an entire directory tree (i.e., with subdirectories) to a different location but (rooted) at the same level as the directory mount point: source directory tree: /rhk destination directory mount point: /back/rhk desired destination directory tree path: /back/rhk (and not /back/rhk/rhk) In this case I would expect to use a cp command as follows: cp -aux /rhk/* /back/rhk/ Example 2: other times I want to copy an entire directory tree (i.e., with subdirectories) to a different location but (rooted) one level below the directory mount point: source directory tree: /rhk destination directory mount point: /back desired destination directory tree path: /back/rhk In this case I would expect to use a cp command as follows: cp -aux /rhk/* /back/rhk/ <oops??? the same command?? -- would this work?> I could do an experiment, but I'd rather get some advice first. Also, there might be a better command than cp to do this, but I'd like to understand how to do it with the cp command. (Aside: there is no need for rsync (although it could be used) because the backup disk will be mounted on the computer.)
