BUG: scp -r follows symlinks

[Gregory Seidman]

On Mon, Jan 05, 2004 at 09:32:59PM -0800, Edward S. Peschko wrote:
} On Mon, Jan 05, 2004 at 05:43:00PM -0800, Dan Kaminsky wrote:
[...]
} > rsync does not require an extra service when invoked as such:   rsync -e 
} > ssh -r user at host:/path path
} 
} fair enough.. but it would still be much less of a pain to have this all bundled
} into one command. Why should I maintain two?

How about because the functionality you want is available using two
commands? Why should anyone bother to build functionality into a program
that is already available in another so simply?

} > symlink syntax is notoriously messy.  It's rare that anything _but_ tar 
} > can handle it correctly (I mean, that's the point -- it looks like a 
} > normal file/dir).
} > 
} 
} Ok... duplicate the logic that tar has in determining what is a link. Or accept
} a patch that does this. Or build in a tar interface, so that -r is implemented
} in *terms* of tar. Or somesuch. All I know is right now, its not very user friendly,
} and its not script friendly.

But rsync is. So quit whining. If you want a patched version of scp, patch
it and maintain it yourself. Or use rsync and ssh as they come. Your
constraint regarding relying on a single command is not compelling, and is
not going to convince anyone to muck with scp's existing feature set.

} Ed
--Greg