How to copy file preserving directory path in Linux?

I have Eclipse projects and ".project" file in them, the directory structure looks like 'myProject/.project'. I want to copy these '.project' files to another directory, but I want the enclosing directory name to be preserved.

Let's say I have 'a/myProject/.project', I want to copy 'myProject/.project' to 'b', so it be 'b/myProject/.project', but 'b/myProject' doesn't exist. When I try in a:

 cp -r ./myProject/.project ../b

it copies only '.project' file itself, without 'myProject' directory. Please advise.

Answer

The switch you need is --parents, e.g.:

jim@prometheus:~$ cp --parents test/1/.moo test2/
jim@prometheus:~$ ls -la test2/
total 42
drwxr-xr-x   3 jim jim    72 2010-09-14 09:32 .
drwxr-xr-x 356 jim jim 43136 2010-09-14 09:32 ..
drwxr-xr-x   3 jim jim    72 2010-09-14 09:32 test
jim@prometheus:~$ ls -la test2/test/1/.moo
-rw-r--r-- 1 jim jim 0 2010-09-14 09:32 test2/test/1/.moo