Back up files and directories on Debian Linux

The command for backing up all files and directories is like this:

cp -R ./folderA/* ./folderB/

If two files and one folder are inside folderA, they will be copied to folderB after issuing the command.

-R means recursively copying the files and folders. * means everything inside the folder. "." means the current directory.

Technical things: Directories are referred to as folders. Folders are referred to as directories. They are used interchangeably.


Reference:
Linux and UNIX cp command help