Copying directory structure without files unix

What does the -- mkdir's option? It means "hey mkdir, any argument after this, it's not a flag, so treat it as a file argument, even if it starts with a '-' character. Use rynsc to preserve the permissions and attributes — Trevor Boyd Smith.

Gildas Gildas 10 10 silver badges 16 16 bronze badges. Problem with this solution is: my folders contain thousands of files and rsync takes ages just to sync a dozen of folders. I dunno if you are looking for a solution on Linux. Would be exellent one, but you forgot to mention saving ownership, timestamp and permissions.

I should think the blame lies squarely on whoever tries to use Windows for real work. This works: find. Igor Igor 4 4 silver badges 11 11 bronze badges. Thim Thim 21 1 1 bronze badge. Tony 5, 1 1 gold badge 35 35 silver badges 51 51 bronze badges. Unfortunately, our CIFS-serving fileserver isn't running windows, so no can do on win commands.

Thank you, the rsync method worked perfectly fine for me. It's compatible with spaces in directory names as well. Franck Dernoncourt Franck Dernoncourt Tiger peng Tiger peng 5 5 silver badges 6 6 bronze badges. Obsidian 3, 7 7 gold badges 15 15 silver badges 28 28 bronze badges.

Marcos Alves Marcos Alves 1. D 1 2 2 bronze badges. This solution works perfectly on LinuxMint Thank you! Here is a solution in php that: copies the directories not recursively, only one level preserves permissions unlike the rsync solution, is fast even with directories containing thousands of files as it does not even go into the folders has no problems with spaces should be easy to read and adjust Create a file like syncDirs.

Christopher K. You don't have to like PHP and you don't have to use it. There are many other useful options to pass to the cp command: like -v for "verbose" output or -f for "force. I highly encourage you to read through the man page for all of the other useful options.

If you liked this tutorial, I also talk about topics like this on Twitter , and write about them on my site. If you read this far, tweet to the author to show them you care. Tweet a thanks. Learn to code for free. Get started. Forum Donate. John Mosesman. This is also very useful if you like to keep two directory structures in sync over a period of time or you will need to copy directory structure in its entirety multiple times.

Using rsync also gives you the option to replicate by just updating the directories when run multiple times and also the ability to handle deletes in the source without having to remove the entire destination directory.

You may use either of the following command line options to exclude files. We use the -a or —archive option that provides several useful functions, such as recursion, preserving the times, permissions and owner of the directories and symlink support.

After the first replication, additional changes can be propagated without having to copy over the entire structure again. The other options include —delete-before and —delete-after , that deletes files before or after the file transfers —force : This option will delete the directories forcefully, even if the destination folder contains files or sub directories.

All of the above options copies over the entire directory structure or updates them. But sometimes, you might want to exclude some sub-directories based on name. For example, you might want to exclude all the directories named logs that are scattered over various sub directories. One option is to copy over all the directories and then delete the ones that are not needed. Even better is the option to not copy over the directories that are not needed. This will not copy over directories with the path that ends with folder name logs.

If the logs folder happens to have sub-folders then those will be copied thus copying the parent logs folder itself. You can do the same thing with the rsync command as well.