Perform rsync while following sym links

Question

I have a directory that contains symbolic links to other directories located on different media on my system:

/opt/lun1/2011 /opt/lun1/2010 /opt/lun2/2009 /opt/lun2/2008 /opt/lun3/2007

But the symbolic links show up as:

/files/2011 /files/2010 /files/2009 /files/2008 /files/2007

How can I perform an rsync that follows the symbolic links?

e.g.:

rsync -XXX /files/ user@server:/files/

MadHatter · Answer 1 · 2011-03-10 16:33:00Z

up vote 3 down vote accepted

The -L flag to rsync will sync the contents of files or directories linked to, rather than the symbolic link.

answered Mar 10 '11 at 16:33

MadHatter
14.5k11639

	When I do this, all the receiver symbolic links get deleted and my sender starts re-sending the files. – ensnare Mar 10 '11 at 16:40
	Isn't that what you want? I thought you wanted to have the real files on the receiving side, not just the symlinks. Do you mean you want the symlinks copied as symlinks, but automagically rewritten to point to the "right" place on the receiving system? If so, that's not what is normally meant by "an rsync that follows the symbolic links". – MadHatter Mar 10 '11 at 17:10
	It actually deletes the symbolic links and replaces them with the files. I want to follow the symbolic links through as if they were regular directories. – ensnare Mar 10 '11 at 17:53
	Are these symbolic links to files, or to directories; your comment above suggests both? Could you paste an example of what you've got on the source side and what you would like to see on the destination side, in the original question? And by example, I mean some detail: `ls -al` output from the source side. – MadHatter Mar 10 '11 at 17:59
	Hi -- these are directories. I got this to work with the -K flag. – ensnare Mar 10 '11 at 21:20

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