How to copy a directory recursively using hardlinks for each file

cpfileshard linkrecursive

I want to create a "copy" of a directory tree where each file is a hardlink to the original file

Example: I have a directory structure:

dirA/
dirA/file1
dirA/x/
dirA/x/file2
dirA/y/
dirA/y/file3

Here is the expected result, a "copy" of the directory tree where each file is a hardlink to the original file:

dirB/            #  normal directory
dirB/file1       #  hardlink to dirA/file1
dirB/x/          #  normal directory
dirB/x/file2     #  hardlink to dirA/x/file2
dirB/y/          #  normal directory
dirB/y/file3     #  hardlink to dirA/y/file3

Best Answer

On Linux (more precisely with the GNU and busybox implementations of cp as typically found on systems that have Linux as a kernel) and recent FreeBSD, this is how:

cp -al dirA dirB

For a more portable solution, see answer using pax and cpio by Stéphane Chazelas

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