Re: cp -rfL and symlinks to directories

[Jim Meyering]

Martin Michlmayr <address@hidden> wrote:
> * Martin Michlmayr <address@hidden> [2006-01-25 17:31]:
>> I wonder if cp -rfL could handle symlinks to directories better than
>> it currently does.
>
> Paul, Jim, any comments regarding this posting?
>
> full messag was at:
> http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-coreutils/2006-01/msg00169.html

This change from a few days ago:
  <http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-coreutils/2006-02/msg00020.html>
NEWS:
  When `cp -RL' encounters the same directory more than once in the
  hierarchy beneath a single command-line argument, it no longer confuses
  them with hard-linked directories.

makes it so the use of cp in your example no longer fails.
Now, it does this:

  $ ./cp -rfL a b
  $ find b
  b
  b/a
  b/a/b
  b/a/a

If you also want hard links, then will --link (-l) help?