Uploading symlinks to a server

Question

Is it actually possible to upload symlinks and keep them as symlinks as opposed to uploading the files they're pointing to?

I have a directory structure that relies on symlinks and I'm looking for a way to send this to users who have no command line knowledge and would want to upload it to their servers.

Is there a way to create symlinks so that they're uploadable as symlinks? If not, is there an approach you could recommend?

Thanks!!!

Answer 1

thanks for the answers!

@Dav yes, that's definitely what I meant! I still need to upload the targeted files

@pavium you have a point though re: needing the command line to untar the uploaded file... , still i will look into it as it provides a packaging solution

I may have found another solution though, it seems PHP could handle the job with the symlink() function which could prove quite handy as all my symlinks are relative not absolute, meaning I could possibly create symlinks on the server without the need of a specific server information.

Answer 2

Try tar-ing the directory structure into an archive? The users can then un-tar it on the other end.

Answer 3

rsync -avlzp /path/to/folder user@somemachine:/path/to/new/folder