[tlug] Find symlinks, or what should be symlinks...

[Darren Cook <darren@example.com>]

In setting up my new notebook, I copied over the big Projects directory
tree. My first try (using rsync, via a NAS disk) had problems
(everything had the 'x' permission set, and symlinks didn't get copied).

So, I set up sshd, and "scp -rp"-ed the directory tree. It took a while
longer than expected, and I realized it must have followed all the
symlinks into a "data" directory tree, and copied them as files. Not
major, I thought, there are just a few, I can move it around afterwards
(and it saves having to copy the data directory...).

But, poking around, I realize there were lots of symlinks. E.g. a
directory containing library files:
   xxx.1.2.3.so
   xxx.so

These are now both 2MB files, instead of one being a link to the other.

How would you fix this?

I could delete and start again, using rsync, with it set to keep
symlinks within the same disk).

...Would rsync, to the existing tree, replace xxx.so above with a
symlink, automatically? If so, not starting again and instead just
running rsync, might be perfect?

Or I could run some clever bash script (??) to find all symlinks on the
old machine. Then I have a list of what I need to fix manually.

Or I started wondering if there is a tool to hunt for duplicate files
and sub-directories in a directory tree? That might give me an optimum
list of what should be symlinked, and at least I'd then know the size of
the problem.

Darren



-- 
Darren Cook, Software Researcher/Developer
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