Keeping structure when copy folder/file in Linux.

$mkdir a
$touch a/abc

Copy a to another folder

$cp -r a b/
$mkdir c && cp -r a c/
$tree a b c
a
└── abc
b
└── abc
c
└── a
    └── abc

If copy to a new folder, the original folder structure will not be kept.

To copy a specific file with --parents will keep orginal structure.

$mkdir d
$cp -r --parents a/abc d/
$tree d
d
└── a
    └── abc

The rsync will keep folder structure even if the sync folder not existing.

$rsync -a a e/
$tree e
e
└── a
    └── abc

$tree
├── a
│   └── abc
├── b
│   └── abc
├── c
│   └── a
│       └── abc
├── d
│   └── a
│       └── abc
└── e
    └── a
        └── abc