UBUNTU LINUX: How to copy and paste once and for all with Terminal?

Question

i need help! im totally stuck at terminal dont tell me to use a disc or program or install some kind of program please... just tell me this..

how do i copy and paste files individually and grouped, folders indivdually and grouped.& exclude files and subdirectories from being copied from directories FROM WITHIN THE TERMINAL.

Example 1: how do i copy and paste a SINGLE folder such as "My Documents" and everything in it (both files & folders) into a destination folder.

Example 2: how do i copy and paste a GROUP of folders such as "Documents, Pictures, Videos" with one command into a destination folder

Example 3: how do i copy and paste a folder such as My Documents but EXCLUDE a file or folder within My Documents such as the folders My Pictures, My Videos, My Music and EXCLUDE files SPAM.doc SPAM.pdf etc. and have it NOT be copied and pasted into a destination folder but than have everything else copied and pasted into my destination folder. (**very important**)

Example 4: how do i copy and paste a SINGLE file into a destination folder

Example 5: how do i copy and paste a GROUP of files into a destination folder.

Example 3 is really important because i have a TON of files in a folder but the folder has other folders within it that take up an immense amount of space that i do not have...if you CANNOT EXCLUDE files from being copied within in a folder let me know... and if you cannot copy and paste a group of files in one directory let me know what would be the command to juse copy and paste individual files then...hopefully i can exclude or group the files that way i do not have to copy and paste a billion individual pdfs and docs...thank you...

Answer 1

you are going to use cp.  You can look at all of the flags with "man cp".  CTRL + Z will get you out of man.  "cp --help" should also help.  For recursiveness, you have three options:   -R, -r, --recursive.

I don't know about GROUPS of files and folders and I don't know about the exclusion either.  You might try ubuntuforums.org for Linux questions, even if you aren't using Ubuntu.  You might have to write a script to do what you're trying to do.