Copy folder recursive in R

I think R.utils::copyDirectory(oldDir, newDir) is the solution to what you're asking. It doesn't require creating newDir first, either.

Ok, I just figured out what the error means... :-) I have to create the new directory in advance and now I can copy everything...

dir.create('new_folder')
file.copy("my_folder", "new_folder", recursive=TRUE)

This works as expected.