Like shutil.copytree, only no need for a containing directory at the source.

copytree-headless.py

# copy headless tree
rootlen = len(source) + 1  # chop off the leading slash below
for root, dirs, files in os.walk(source):
    diff = root[rootlen:]
    for f in files:
        shutil.copy2(os.path.join(root, f), os.path.join(dest, diff))
    for d in dirs:
        try:
            os.mkdir(os.path.join(dest, diff, d))
        except OSError:
            pass  # already exists