How do you use cp to copy recursively from a directory to another. The directory that I am copying from has multiple different directories underneath it, that is each directory has directories inside it. Now, I want to copy some select files from a directory.
I am trying to use:
cp -rv directory destination - but this gives me all the files
if I use:
cp -rv directory/*.txt destination - this will only give me the .txt files that are under directory.

What I want is all the .txt files that are under every directory.

Anyone can help?
Thank you very much!

Sorry there are too many "directories"

I'd use tar -c $( find -type f -name 'pattern' ) | tar -xC destination.
ta0kira

PS This needs to be done from the relevant directory because it will create every directory between the file and the current working directory in the destination. In other words, copying /home/you/file will create dest/you/file if called from /home, but dest/home/you/file if called from /.

You can also use rsync to grab those files, for example, to get all the text files (ending in ".txt"):

Where "tmp" is the source directory, and "temp" is the destination (it will copy from the source dir, not the source dir itself)