You can copy the contents of a folder /source to another existing folder /dest with the command:

cp -a /source/. /dest/

The -a option is an improved recursive option, that preserves all file attributes and symlinks.

The . at end of the source path is a specific cp syntax that copies all files and folders, including hidden ones.

Try this:

cp Folder1/* Folder2/

Given your comment on user79914's response ("Unfortunately, the files do not have similar names…"), it sounds like you'll have to explicitly list the files you want copied in a regular old cp command. Something like the following should do the job:

cp FILE_1 FILE_2 FILE_3 /destination/directory

If, for instance, your copy operation is one you'll be doing more than once, you could do something like the following:

for FILE in $(cat ./list_of_files.txt)
do
    cp ${FILE} /destination/directory
done

This example assumes that you've added the list of desired files to the text file list_of_files.txt. The benefit of this approach, especially if you're having to perform the copy more than once, is that you can just add any new files you need copied to your list_of_files.txt file.

For more examples like this one, check out this link:

https://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/bash-for-loop/

Simply copy multiple files at once from command line

There are several ways you could achieve this. The easiest I have seen is to use the following.

cp /home/usr/dir/{file1,file2,file3,file4} /home/usr/destination/

The syntax uses the cp command followed by the path to the directory the desired files are located in with all the files you wish to copy wrapped in brackets and separated by commas.

Make sure to note that there are no spaces between the files. The last part of the command, /home/usr/destination/, is the directory you wish to copy the files into.

or if the all the files have the same prefix but different endings you could do something like this:

cp /home/usr/dir/file{1..4} ./

Where file1,file2,file3 and file4 would be copied.

From how you worded the question I believe this is what you're looking for but it also sounds like you might be looking for a command to read from a list of files and copy all of them to a certain directory. If that is the case let me know and i'll edit my answer.

Dealing with duplicates with python

So I wrote a little python script that I believe should get the job done. However, I am not sure how well versed you are in python (if versed at all) so I will try explaining how to use this script the best I can and please ask as many questions about it as you need.

import os,sys,shutil
### copies a list of files from source. handles duplicates.
def rename(file_name, dst, num=1):
    #splits file name to add number distinction
    (file_prefix, exstension) = os.path.splitext(file_name)
    renamed = "%s(%d)%s" % (file_prefix,num,exstension)

    #checks if renamed file exists. Renames file if it does exist.
    if os.path.exists(dst + renamed):
        return rename(file_name, dst, num + 1)
    else:
        return renamed

def copy_files(src,dst,file_list):
    for files in file_list:
        src_file_path = src + files
        dst_file_path = dst + files
        if os.path.exists(dst_file_path):
            new_file_name =  rename(files, dst)
            dst_file_path = dst + new_file_name
            
        print "Copying: " + dst_file_path
        try:
            shutil.copyfile(src_file_path,dst_file_path)
        except IOError:
            print src_file_path + " does not exist"
            raw_input("Please, press enter to continue.")

def read_file(file_name):
    f = open(file_name)
    #reads each line of file (f), strips out extra whitespace and 
    #returns list with each line of the file being an element of the list
    content = [x.strip() for x in f.readlines()]
    f.close()
    return content

src = sys.argv[1]
dst = sys.argv[2]
file_with_list = sys.argv[3]

copy_files(src,dst,read_file(file_with_list))

This script should be relatively simple to use. First off, copy the above code into the program gedit (should be pre-installed in Ubuntu) or any other text editor.

After that is complete, save the file as move.py in your home directory (it can be any directory but for ease of instruction lets just use the home directory) or add the directory the file is contained in to your PATH. Then cd to your home directory (or whatever directory you saved move.py in) from the terminal and type the following command:

python move.py /path/to/src/ /path/to/dst/ file.txt

This should copy all of the files that are listed from the source directory to the destination directory with duplicates taking the format pic(1).jpg, pic(2).jpg and so on. file.txt should be a file that lists all the pictures you would like to copy with each entry on its own separate line.

In no way should this script effect the source directory, however just make sure to enter the correct paths to the source and destination directory and the worst that could happen is you copy the files to the wrong directory.

Notes

• This script assumes that all of the original pictures are in the same directory. If you want it to check sub directories as well the script will need to be modified.
• If you accidentally mistype a file name, the script will spit out the error
  "file does not exist" and prompt you to "press enter" to continue and the script will continue copying the rest of the list.
• Don't forget the trailing / on both the path to the source
  directory and path to the destination directory. Otherwise the script will spit an error back at you.

The option you're looking for is -R.

cp -R path_to_source path_to_destination/

• If destination doesn't exist, it will be created.
• -R means copy directories recursively. You can also use -r since it's case-insensitive.
• To copy everything inside the source folder (symlinks, hidden files) without copying the source folder itself use -a flag along with trailing /. in the source (as per @muni764's / @Anton Krug's comment):

cp -a path_to_source/. path_to_destination/

Try

cp -R /var/www /media/magneto Avoid the extra forward slash at the end of the path name.

Or

you can navigate to the /var directory in terminal and then try

cp -R www /media/magneto

What you want is:

cp -R t1/. t2/

The dot at the end tells it to copy the contents of the current directory, not the directory itself. This method also includes hidden files and folders.

Option 1

You can try the following trick and change your command to

cp sourceDir/*.* destDir

it will only copy files in the same folder, as long as they have the format like filename.ext. Make sure you have not folder with the same format.

Option 2

Otherwise you try the following command:

find /sourceDir/ -type f -execdir cp "{}" /destDir/ ";"

It will search for all files inside the sourceDir and then copies them to the destDir.

cp dir1/* dir2

cp will not copy directories unless explicitly told to do so (with --recursive for example, see man cp).

Note 1: cp will most likely exit with a non-zero status, but the files will have been copied anyway. This may be an issue when chaining commands based on exit codes:&&, ||, if cp -r dir1/* dir2; then ..., etc. (Thanks to contrebis for their comment on that issue)

Note 2: cp expects the last parameter to be a single file name or directory. There really should be no wildcard * after the name of the target directory. dir2\* will be expanded by the shell just like dir1\*. Unexpected things will happen:

• If dir2 is empty and depending on your shell and settings:
  • you may just get an error message, which is the best case scenario.
  • dir2/* will be taken literally (looking for a file/directory named *), which will probably lead to an error, too, unless * actually exists.
  • dir2/* it will just be removed from the command entirely, leaving cp dir1/*. Which, depending on the expansion of dir1/*, may even destroy data:
    • If dir1/* matches only one file or directory, you will get an error from cp.
    • If dir1/* matches exactly two files, one will be overwritten by the other (Bad).
    • If dir/* matches multiple files and the last match is a, you will get an error message.
    • If the last match of dir/* is a directory all other matches will be moved into it.
• If dir2 is not empty, it again depends:
  • If the last match of dir2/* is a directory, dir1/* and the other matches of dir2/* will be moved into.
  • If the last match of dir2/* is a file, you probably will get an error message, unless dir1/* matches only one file.

cp dir1/file1.txt dir2

or if you are in dir1

cp file1.txt ../dir2

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

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