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# Copying Nested Directories With Ditto

You can copy nested directories with `cp` using the `-R` (*recursive*) flag. The way `cp` works is that it replaces the target location with the source directory, wiping out whatever files or directories reside at the target location.

Conversely, the `ditto` utility, available on OS X's version of Unix, does *recursive* directory copies by default and merges the contents of any existing directories.

As an example, here are two folders, `folder1` and `folder2`:

```bash
❯ exa -T folder1
folder1
├── cats
│  └── sneaky
└── dogs
   └── fido

❯ exa -T folder2
folder2
└── cats
   └── oreo
```

Using `ditto` to copy `folder1` to `folder2`

```bash
❯ ditto folder1 folder2
```

we get a `folder2` where directories from `folder1` are created and existing directories are merged together.

```bash
❯ exa -T folder2
folder2
├── cats
│  ├── oreo
│  └── sneaky
└── dogs
   └── fido
```

See `man ditto` for more details.