I have a centrally located folder ($HOME$/my-libs) with all of my 'completed' sources. When I create a new project, I 'lndir' the appropriate source directories into the project folder so that all projects use up to date sources and I have the links there to show me the dependencies.

When I back up a version, I would like to either

1) be able to copy the project folder and have the original files (instead of the links) copied with the folder

2) create a shell script to see which source folders exist in the project folder, and then copy the folders from the central source directory. In case that was not clear:

Suppose there are folders 'ALGORITHM', 'ANALYSIS', and 'FILE' in the source folder. Then suppose there was a project 'APP' that needed 'ALGORITHM', so I would 'lndir' that folder into 'APP/ALGORITHM'. The ideal script would decide "this folder contains 'ALGORITHM', which is also a folder in the source directory, therefore I will replace that folder with the actual one from source directory." Is that possible?

Thanks.
ta0kira

1) is easy. cp -rL. the "-L" flag dereferences the symlinks, following them and copying the actual files.

This seems to defeat the purpose of using lndir in the first place. But just use simple tests and above cp command.

if [ -d APPS/ALGORITHM ]; then
cp -rL /path/ALGORITHM /path/APP;
fi

But now you're left re-copying every time you change anything in ALGORITHM, not to mention the redundancy. man lndir and read what it says...

HTH

Thanks, that is what I was looking for. I figured out the second part yesterday. In the project folders I am leaving the links, but I back up the projects once in a while. When I back one up, I want a (then-current) copy of the actual sources so that the project can be distro'd or put on CD, and I can reproduce the app just from that backup. Thanks again.
ta0kira