I am seeking for a command that would re-create a whole tree of files in a different directory. I would prefer to have all symlinks absolute. Can I do that with a find and xargs? ;-)
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cp -rs source/ dest/ should do the trick. The directory structure will be recreated at dest/ with each file being a symlink to its counterpart in source.
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Also my first attempt. Failed to get
cpto create symlink forsource/some_deeper_dir/files. – Jokester Apr 2 '13 at 16:29 -
1In my experience, you have to use the full path to source (e.g.
cp -Rs /home/myusername/source dest) otherwise it will complain. here's a ref: lists.gnu.org/archive/html/help-gnu-utils/2004-08/msg00039.html – 22degrees Nov 3 '16 at 21:05
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In case cp -rs is not the answer you're looking for, lndir might be the correct answer.
/tmp/somedirectorypointing at/home/me/somegreatdir, then all the contents ofsomegreatdirwill be visible under/tmp/somedirectory. This needs just one symlink for the entire tree. Or what else do you want? – jankes Nov 12 '11 at 23:41