Symlink all files in a directory with the entire directory tree

Question

Right now I use this

ln -s /dir/* /dir2/

Which will symlink everything, but I have to go inside the dir and make a new directory because the folders are also symlinked (this is expected).

So here is what Im trying to achieve: Symlink all files, but when there is a folder, make a directory with the same name and symlink the files inside of that folder and inside that folder, etc.

Much like GNU cp with the -al flag, which I got by running brew install coreutils.

gcp -al /dir1/ dir2/ 

This does what I want except they are hard links and not symlinks.

Answer 1

I guess you should separate the file handling from the directory handling. Make the directories first. In the GNU world:

cd /dir2
find /dir -mindepth 1 -maxdepth 1 -type d -exec mkdir {} \;

And then the symlinks:

find /dir -mindepth 1 -maxdepth 1 -type f -exec ln -s -t /dir2 {} +