G'day Hobbes3,

I prefer to use "rsync" for this kind of action. On top of copying the files it can copy permissions and improve the transfer speed over conventional cp.

The trailing "/" on the destination is crucial for your requirement.

Try something like:

          rsync -aHSv /parentFolder/folder2 /parentFolder/folder1/

I prefer to use rsync for this kind of action. On top of copying the files it can copy permissions and improve the transfer speed over conventional cp.

The trailing / on the destination is crucial for your requirement.

Try something like:

rsync -aHSv /parentFolder/folder2 /parentFolder/folder1/