Linux – How to Copy Files Recursively Ignoring Destination Directory Structure

You could use rsync (it also does local copy)

rsync -r --ignore-existing --include=*/ --include=*.js --exclude=* source/ destination

• -r to recurse into directories,
• --ignore-existing to ignore existing files in destination,
• the include and exclude filters mean: include all directories, include all *.js files, exclude the rest; the first include is needed, otherwise the final exclude will also exclude directories before their content is scanned.

Finally, you can add a -P if you want to watch progress, a --list-only if you want to see what it would copy without actually copying, and a -t if you want to preserve the timestamps.

This is not related, but I learned the rsync command recently, when I moved 15 years of documents from one partition to another. Confident that my files were there, I then wiped the old partition and put some other stuff in there; I realized later that I lost all the timestamps, and discovered the -t flag. Just wanted to share my distress :'(

TotalCommander can do this as Mick said.

When you have two panes open, select Commands -> Synchronise Directories option.

It doesn't display strictly like a tree (no collapsing nodes), but it allows one to select individual items. Right clicking a folder allows bulk (de)selection.

Now select Compare for the directories content to be scanned, ready for (de)selection.

Note that in the latter screenshot I have only chosen to Show the Green Arrow Meaning only items on the left and not the right are displayed.

FreeFileSync is almost there, but it's not ideal for this task (at least for me) for two reasons as it removes files/folder from the view immediately when you uncheck them for synchronisation.