HOW2 copy file-tree?

[chris glur <crglur gmail com>]

.....
no not with mc. That works fine.

I need to restore some setting to a re-booted llve-disk installation,
as part of a script.   .....

echo "AND also mc !!!"
installpkg \
/mnt/sda11/var/Pkgs/mc20090717/mc-20090714_git-i486-1.txz
echo "tests OK"

echo "AND also Kogi:/root .*<setting file/S>
 from previous conditions,
 perhaps Kogi/root should be saved before shutdown ?
 ?? and now COPY /sa10/Chroot/KogiRoot to Kogi ??"
#cp -r /sa10/Chroot/KogiRoot /root ? copies INside
#cp -r /sa10/Chroot/KogiRoot/* /root
#--copy-contents
#--target-directory=DIRECTORY
#       copy all SOURCE arguments into DIRECTORY

I just want to overwrite/update the new file-tree: /root
  with the saved: /sa10/Chroot/KogiRoot

So simple. I can't believe that this can be a problem !!

Of course with mc it's no problem, but I want it done as
part of the <setup script>.

`cp --help` is a disaster, too.

==TIA.