From a238877ad84e56031ef7f9e855840928bc6d8a28 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: albertony <12441419+albertony@users.noreply.github.com>
Date: Sat, 30 Oct 2021 00:30:00 +0200
Subject: [PATCH] docs: note that destination is always a directory (#5766)

---
 docs/content/commands/rclone_copy.md | 36 +++++++++++++++++++---------
 docs/content/commands/rclone_move.md | 19 +++++++++++++++
 2 files changed, 44 insertions(+), 11 deletions(-)

diff --git a/docs/content/commands/rclone_copy.md b/docs/content/commands/rclone_copy.md
index 149e1eb23..daf1d8ba8 100644
--- a/docs/content/commands/rclone_copy.md
+++ b/docs/content/commands/rclone_copy.md
@@ -16,33 +16,47 @@ Copy the source to the destination.  Doesn't transfer
 unchanged files, testing by size and modification time or
 MD5SUM.  Doesn't delete files from the destination.
 
-Note that it is always the contents of the directory that is synced,
-not the directory so when source:path is a directory, it's the
-contents of source:path that are copied, not the directory name and
-contents.
+Note that when the source is a directory, it is always the contents
+of the directory that is copied, not the directory itself.
 
-If dest:path doesn't exist, it is created and the source:path contents
-go there.
-
-For example
+For example, given the following command:
 
     rclone copy source:sourcepath dest:destpath
 
-Let's say there are two files in sourcepath
+Let's say there are two files in source:
 
     sourcepath/one.txt
     sourcepath/two.txt
 
-This copies them to
+The command will copy them to:
 
     destpath/one.txt
     destpath/two.txt
 
-Not to
+Not to:
 
     destpath/sourcepath/one.txt
     destpath/sourcepath/two.txt
 
+Also note that the destination is always a directory. If the path
+does not exist, it will be created as a directory and the contents of
+the source will be copied into it. This is the case even if the source
+path points to a file. If you want to copy a single file to a different
+name you must use [copyto](commands/rclone_copyto/) instead.
+
+For example, given the command:
+
+    rclone copy source:sourcepath/one.txt dest:destpath/one.txt
+
+Rclone will create a directory `dest:destpath/one.txt` and put the source file in there:
+
+    dest:destpath/one.txt/one.txt
+
+Not copy the single source file as a file with the given destination path,
+which would be the result if copyto had been used instead:
+
+    dest:destpath/one.txt
+
 If you are familiar with `rsync`, rclone always works as if you had
 written a trailing `/` - meaning "copy the contents of this directory".
 This applies to all commands and whether you are talking about the
diff --git a/docs/content/commands/rclone_move.md b/docs/content/commands/rclone_move.md
index 0a53c1eea..8eba2368c 100644
--- a/docs/content/commands/rclone_move.md
+++ b/docs/content/commands/rclone_move.md
@@ -26,6 +26,25 @@ move will be used, otherwise it will copy it (server-side if possible)
 into `dest:path` then delete the original (if no errors on copy) in
 `source:path`.
 
+Note that the destination is always a directory. If the path
+does not exist, it will be created as a directory and the contents of
+the source will be moved into it. This is the case even if the source
+path points to a file. If you want to move a single file to a different
+name you must use [moveto](commands/rclone_moveto/) instead.
+
+For example, given the command:
+
+    rclone move source:sourcepath/one.txt dest:destpath/one.txt
+
+Rclone will create a directory `dest:destpath/one.txt` and put the source file in there:
+
+    dest:destpath/one.txt/one.txt
+
+Not move the single source file into the given destination path,
+which would be the result if moveto had been used instead:
+
+    dest:destpath/one.txt
+
 If you want to delete empty source directories after move, use the --delete-empty-src-dirs flag.
 
 See the [--no-traverse](/docs/#no-traverse) option for controlling