```
$ cp --no-preserve=mode --parents /sys/power/state /tmp/test/
$ cp --no-preserve=mode --parents /sys/bus/cpu/drivers_autoprobe /tmp/test/

```

The second of the two lines will fail with

```
cp: cannot make directory ‘/tmp/test/sys/bus’: Permission denied

```

And the reason is that `/tmp/test/sys` is created without write permission (as is the original `/sys`); a normal `mkdir /tmp/test/sys2` would not have done this:

```
$ ls -la /tmp/test/
total 32
drwxr-xr-x  3 robert.siemer domain^users  4096 Oct 11 13:56 .
drwxrwxrwt 13 root          root         20480 Oct 11 13:56 ..
dr-xr-xr-x  3 robert.siemer domain^users  4096 Oct 11 13:56 sys
drwxr-xr-x  2 robert.siemer domain^users  4096 Oct 11 13:59 sys2

```

How can I instruct `cp` to not preserve the mode, apart from `--no-preserve=mode`, which does not work as I believe it should...?

Or which tool should I use to copy a list of files without preserving “anything” except symlinks?