The source is the only thing to worry about. Without a trailing slash it makes a copy of the directory, and fills it. With a trailing slash, it copies just th

The source is the only thing to worry about. Without a trailing slash it makes a copy of the directory, and fills it. With a trailing slash, it copies just the *Contents* of the directory. rsync -avP foo bar # puts foo inside bar so bar/foo/* rsync -avP foo/ bar # puts the the contents of foo, in bar (without making foo) I like to add the v & P flags for verbosity & progress.