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Is there an easy way to copy a directory recursively where symlinks to external files/directories are resolved (target file is copied), but internal symlinks (pointing to files inside the copied tree) are kept?
Example:
touch outsidefile
mkdir src
ln -s ../outsidefile src/sym1
touch src/insidefile
ln -s insidefile src/sym2
cp [???] src dest # or other command
wanted result:
$ ls dest
insidefile
sym1
sym2 -> insidefile
i.e. sym1 is a regular file, sym2 keeps to be a symlink.
rsync -a --copy-unsafe-links src/ dest
From the man page:
--copy-unsafe-links
This tells rsync to copy the referent of symbolic links that point outside the copied tree. Absolute symlinks are also treated like ordinary files, and so are any symlinks in the source path itself when
--relativeis used. This option has no additional effect if--copy-linkswas also specified.[...]
--links --copy-unsafe-links Turn all unsafe symlinks into files and duplicate all safe symlinks.
-l option? I misread the manpage initially, exchanging -l for --copy-links.
rsync and symlink behavior is very tricky. I can't remember exactly how, but it even makes a difference whether you add the slash at the end of a folder or not.
symlinks -cs src beforehand to fix the absolute links and relative symlinks like ../src/inside that do point inside.
Oct 26, 2015 at 16:41
-al breaks anything, but replaced with just -a. I don't have symlinks by default on my system, so don't know about that. I also don't know how rsync determines unsafe or not; I would have expected it to resolve links fully and leave them alone if they do point inside the tree, but haven't tested that.