By default, symbolic links (symlinks) are copyied as they are: pointers. If you want to copy files from a symlink based repository (like GIT Annex), you need to follow the pointer.
![Image](copying-symbolic-links-1.png)
If you want to copy the destination file of the symlink (follow the symlink), you need to add the argument -L
.
For example:
cp -L /mnt/data/archive/Documents /mnt/backup
This is necessary when copying files from a git-annex repository, which uses symlinks to an internal filestore.
A good explanation between hard and soft links on linux can be found here: