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David M
Asked: 2014-07-24 13:29:41 +0800 CST

How can I copy files by creating symlinks?

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I want to traverse a filesystem and copy parts of it to another filesystem by creating symlinks instead of copying anything.

rsync would be ideal if it had something like a --local-copy-via-symlink option, because rsync's inclusion/exclusion filters would be the best way to specify what I want to copy.

I know I can do this with a script, but is there a clever command that does this already?

unix

1 Answers

  1. Best Answer
    1. A symlink is not a copy of a file, the link is a pointer to another file.
    2. Changing the data either by using the filename or the link name does not result in a two different files, which would be the case with a real copy.
    3. Removing the original doesn't retain (a copy of) the data at the location of the symlink, instead you get what's called a broken symlink, something that points to file location that no longer exists.

    Simply put, there is nothing "clever" to do.

    EDIT

    Instead of creating symlinks, Linux has the concept of a "bind" mount. Since Linux 2.4.0 it is possible to remount part of the file hierarchy some where else. The call is:

                     mount --bind olddir newdir

    or fstab entry is:

                     /olddir /newdir none bind

    After this call the same contents is accessible in two places. This preserves all existing permissions. but you don't have symbolic links either.

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