best way to use cp?

[Martin Alejandro Paredes Sanchez]

El Vie 24 Mar 2006 11:38, Jonathan Horne escribió:
> ok, tell them dumb linux user how to properly copy directories recursivly,
> so he can stop overwritng directories with source files.
> 
> /humor
> 
> ok seriously, tho, i think im doing it wrong.  last night i blasted some
> directories, and when i looked at the destination of where i was supposed to
> be copying to, it was full of all kinds of junk that was supposed to be in
> the top level of the directories i was copying.
> 
> example, i want to copy /mnt/usb1/path/oldfolder  (the folded all its
> recursive contents) into /home/mydir

cp -R /mnt/usb1/path/oldfolder/* /home/mydir/

or

cp -R /mnt/usb1/path/oldfolder /home/mydir/