Linux – How to cp file and create directory if not exists

I want to copy modified files in a svn repository to another directory, while keep their directory structure.

After reading awk and xargs manpage I find a way to get changed filenames like this:

$ svn status -q | awk '{ print $2 }' | xargs -d \\n -I '{}' cp '{}' /tmp/xen/

But the problem is that in this way directory structures are not preserved, I want to copy files like this:

./common/superp.c -> /tmp/xen/common/superp.c
./common/m2mgr.c -> /tmp/xen/common/m2mgr.c
./common/page_alloc.c -> /tmp/xen/common/page_alloc.c
./arch/x86/mm.c -> /tmp/xen/arch/x86/mm.c
./arch/x86/mm/shadow/private.h -> /tmp/xen/arch/x86/mm/shadow/private.h

I have tried to change cp command to cp '{}' /tmp/xen/'{}' but it said no such file or directory. Is there any way to make cp copy file and create directory if required? And please point out if this command chain can be simplified. 🙂

Thanks for all your replies. Since the directory is a little large, I don't want to copy the whole directory using cp -R or rsync. CK's suggestion of using a tar pipe is quite useful.

svn status -q | awk '{ print $2 }' | xargs tar cf -  | (cd /tmp/xen/; tar xvf -)