Copy

cp [file] /dir	Copy to /dir.
cp [file] new_name	Rename
cp -r source_dir /dir	Recursive
cp -p [file] /dir	Preserve its mode, ownership, and timestamps.
cp -i [file] /dir	Interactively, prompting before overwrite.
cp -v [file] /dir	Verbose output, showing the file names as they are copied.
cp -n [file] /dir	No Clobber. Won't overwriting any existing file in the target location.
rsync -av [file] /dir	Archive mode to preserve permissions and verbose output.
rsync -av --progress [file] /dir	Displays progress.
rsync -av --delete /src_dir /dir	Sync contents of /src_dir to /dir, deleting files in /dir that are not in /src_dir.
rsync -av --dry-run [file] /dir	Simulate the file copy operation without actually copying any files. Useful for checking what will be copied.

Copy over SSH to a remote system, compressing file data during the transfer:

rsync -avz -e ssh [file] user@remote_host:/dir