diff --git a/lib/publish-gh-pages.js b/lib/publish-gh-pages.js
index 8acde39eef..cb7b251d6e 100755
--- a/lib/publish-gh-pages.js
+++ b/lib/publish-gh-pages.js
@@ -110,15 +110,18 @@ shell.exec('git rm -rf .');
 
 shell.cd('../..');
 
-shell.cp(
-  '-R',
-  // in github.io case, project is deployed to root. need to not recursively
-  // copy the deployment-branch to be.
-  // The !(...) represents the same thing as "everything but this"
-  // Copies everything in /build except the directory after the !.
-  path.join('build', PROJECT_PATH, `!(${PROJECT_NAME}-${DEPLOYMENT_BRANCH})`),
-  path.join('build', `${PROJECT_NAME}-${DEPLOYMENT_BRANCH}`)
+fromPath = path.join('build', PROJECT_PATH, '/');
+toPath = path.join('build', `${PROJECT_NAME}-${DEPLOYMENT_BRANCH}`);
+// In github.io case, project is deployed to root. Need to not recursively
+// copy the deployment-branch to be.
+excludePath = `${PROJECT_NAME}-${DEPLOYMENT_BRANCH}`;
+// cannot use shell.cp because it doesn't support copying dotfiles and we
+// need to copy directories like .circleci, for example
+// https://github.com/shelljs/shelljs/issues/79
+shell.exec(
+  `rsync -rtv --exclude=${excludePath} --exclude=.DS_Store ${fromPath} ${toPath}`
 );
+
 shell.cd(path.join('build', `${PROJECT_NAME}-${DEPLOYMENT_BRANCH}`));
 
 const currentCommit = shell.exec('git rev-parse HEAD').stdout.trim();