title: Is it possible to make SCP ignore symbolic links during copy?
body: <p>I need to reinstall one of ours servers, and as a precaution, I want to move <code>/home</code>, <code>/etc</code>, <code>/opt</code>, and <code>/Services</code> to backup server.</p>
  
  <p>However, I have a problem: because of plenty of symbolic links a lot of files are copied multiple times.</p>
  
  <p>Is it possible to make <code>scp</code> ignore the symbolic links (or actually to copy link as a link not as a directory or file)? If not, is there another way to do it?</p>