mjhjmtu

In my directory I have 2 files: a text file and a symbolic link to that text file.

base_v21.txt -> base_v001.txt
base_v001.txt

When I try to copy base_v001.txt using the following command:

# cp base_v001.txt /targetdir

Instead of base_v001.txt getting copied, base_v21.txt is copied.

# ls /targetdir
base_v21.txt

So even though I specify the file I want to copy by the full filename the symbolic link gets copied instead.

I've seen posts about using -L or -H to dereference symlinks, but that doesn't really apply to my situation, because I'm trying to copy the target file itself; not the symlink.

As for why the symlink and the target file are in the same directory, I have no control over that.

Copying to a directory creates a new file with the same name as the source file in the target directory, if a new file name is not given. So the following commands will give the same output:

> cp base_v21.txt /targetdir
> cp base_v21.txt /targetdir/base_v21.txt

These create a new file called "base_v21.txt" with the contents of the file in the source directory. In this case, these are the contents of "base_v001.txt" because of the symbolic link. Essentially, you are doing the following:

> cat base_v21.txt >> /targetdir/base_v21.txt

Thus it is to be expected that the following commands give the same result after copying:

> cat base_v21.txt
> cat base_v001.txt
> cat /targetdir/base_v21.txt

You can see that this occurs with either a hard link or symbolic link in the following examples:

> touch base_v001.txt
> ln -s base_v001.txt base_v21.txt #create soft link
> cat "test" >> base_v001.txt
> mkdir dir
> cd dir
> cp ../base_v21.txt .
> ls
base_v21.txt

>cat base_v21.txt
test

> ln base_v001.txt base_v21.txt #create hard link
> cat "test" >> base_v001.txt
> mkdir dir
> cd dir
> cp ../base_v21.txt .
> ls
base_v21.txt

>cat base_v21.txt
test

Try this,

let the destination be /tmp/

If you want to copy the target file but not the symlink, :

readlink -ne base.txt | xargs -0 cp -t /tmp/

Indeed, that is a very strange behavior.

Check and see what conflicting arguments (if any) are aliased to the cp command.
To do this, run the type command. (i.e. type cp)

Other than that, you can try to perform your operation with an alternative utility such as rsync which also has support for handling symlinks (with the arguments --links --copy-links and --hard-links)