Ignoring Symbolic Links / Junctions

Help & Support
1

I know this has been discussed in other topics, but I have been unable to find a solution to my issue.

Is there a way to ignore / skip symbolic links / junctions when performing a file / folder copy? I seem to be frequently experiencing issues with this lately.

Basically, when I'm copying a Windows user profile folder, I get stuck in an infinite copy loop due to the configuration of the symbolic links which are present as standard in these folders.

I've recently had to revert to using Robocopy to copy profiles as it handles the situation without issue!

Surely there's a fix for Opus?

2

Make a filter like this and save it NoLinks:


Then use a command like Copy FILTER=NoLinks which will skip any file or folder that is a junction, symlink, etc.

3

Thanks Leo, it would be nice to see some kind of core integration of a 'Skip Junctions/Links' type option however. That way you could just utilise the standard copy process.

4

+1, maybe even add "copy links as is", so you get a copy which also includes the junctions/links.

Thanks for the filter template, hope to remember it when needed. o)
I was trying to not include the shortcuts into the filter when creating it, but junctions and links are not separately available as types it seems.

With all these options and alternatives available in DO, I wish for some kind of Copy-Preperation dialog upfront for heavier operations, to visualize and control some of these more easily (like toggling copying of permissions/owner/timestamps etc.). Wonder how I did not get into trouble not continuously en/disabling some of the options in the prefs.

There are switches for the copy command and you could build a bunch of buttons for those, but that is still unhandy since current preferences will always mix in. I actually feel like I lost control over what I copy from here to there when doing a copy/paste or button-press. Maybe I should not think too much? o)

5

Edit: Ignore this!

[s]Links in this case are softlinks and hardlinks, which are unrelated to shortcuts (despite the confusing .lnk file extension shortcuts use).

Softlinks are a filesystem feature, while shortcuts are normal data files (which software can open and interpret if it chooses to).

So the filter would not exclude shortcuts. You'd need a *.lnk clause for those.[/s]

6

Hu? o)
The filter-type reads "junctions/links/shortcuts", but you say it does not include shortcuts (*.lnk files)?

7

You're completely right. I was confused with something similar from an unreleased build. Oops.

8

How would I use this filter Copy FILTER=NoLinks in a Clipboard COPY command so that I could completely replicate the default Ctrl-C command, but without Junctions/SymLinks?
If it's not possible, would you please add this feature to the Clipboard command?

9

The Clipboard command does not support filters. You might be able to achieve the same thing by writing a script, but I do not think there is anything built-in at the moment. Using the Copy command instead would be my recommendation.