cp -a not preserving timestamps on symlinks

Alan Ford <[email protected]> Mon, 26 May 2003 23:14:39 +0100
Newsgroups gmane.comp.gnu.fileutils.bugs
Message-ID <[email protected]>
Hi,

I'm not sure if this is a bug or a limitation, but I'm reporting this
because I could find no mention of it in man pages etc.

When using cp -a, it doesn't preserve the timestamps of the symlinks.
This is very annoying for backup purposes.

Is there any way around this, or is it a legitimate bug?

Indeed, come to think of it, touch can't change timestamps on symlinks
either. Is this just not possible? I don't see any mention of such
limitations on man pages such as utime(2), though.

Thanks.
-- 
Alan Ford * [email protected]