How do I copy a symbolic link?
Use cp -P
(capital P) to never traverse any symbolic link and copy the symbolic link instead.
This can be combined with other options such as -R
to copy a directory hierarchy — cp -RL
traverses all symbolic links to directories, cp -RP
copies all symbolic links as such. cp -R
might do one or the other depending on the unix variants; GNU cp
(as found on CentOS) defaults to -P
.
Even with -P
, you can copy the target of a symbolic link to a directory on the command line by adding a /
at the end: cp -RP foo/ bar
copies the directory tree that foo
points to.
GNU cp
has a convenient -a
option that combines -R
, -P
, -p
and a little more. It makes an exact copy of the source (as far as possible), preserving the directory hierarchy, symbolic links, permissions, modification times and other metadata.
Check this answer https://superuser.com/a/315757/53590 for a specifically CentOS take on the problem. The whole question might help you but the bit at the bottom is specifically CentOS.