Batch script to copy symbolic links as is but not overwrite source if already exist

Question

I've tried Fastcopy and Robocopy and both seem to be able to do either one of those operation but not both.

For files like (BEFORE COPYING)

D:\SYMLINKSOURCE\file1 <<symlink from D:\Source\file1 **edit
D:\SYMLINKSOURCE\file2 <<symlink from D:\Source\file1 **edit

D:\DESTINATIONxx\file2 <<not a symlink

I want to copy D:\SYMLINKSOURCE\* to D:\DESTINATIONxx but without overwriting D:\DESTINATIONxx\file1 such that after copying it looks like

(AFTER COPYING)
D:\SYMLINKSOURCE\file1 <<symlink from D:\Source\file1
D:\SYMLINKSOURCE\file2 <<symlink from D:\Source\file2

D:\DESTINATIONxx\file1 <<symlink from D:\Source\file1
D:\DESTINATIONxx\file2 <<not a symlink

I tried this to not overwrite but it doesn't preserve Symbolic links and instead copies resolved files Copy files without overwrite

robocopy "D:\SYMLINKSOURCE" "D:\DESTINATION" /E /XC /XN /XO

(AFTER COPYING)
D:\SYMLINKSOURCE\file1 <<symlink from D:\Source\file1
D:\SYMLINKSOURCE\file2 <<symlink from D:\Source\file2

D:\DESTINATIONxx\file1 <<not a symlink < i wanted this as symlink
D:\DESTINATIONxx\file2 <<not a symlink

and adding /SL to preserve symlinks overwrites everything.

robocopy "D:\SYMLINKSOURCE" "D:\DESTINATION" /E /XC /XN /XO /SL

(AFTER COPYING)
D:\SYMLINKSOURCE\file1 <<symlink from D:\Source\file1
D:\SYMLINKSOURCE\file2 <<symlink from D:\Source\file2

D:\DESTINATIONxx\file1 <<symlink from D:\Source\file1
D:\DESTINATIONxx\file2 <<symlink from D:\Source\file1 < i did not want this overwritten

Is there any way I can achieve what I want?

Answer 1

The only way I can see on how to do this would be to use two seperate robocopy's first for the non-link files and later for the link-files you want to copy as links. Assuming that there are more normal files than links, you could run your:

robocopy "D:\SYMLINKSOURCE" "D:\DESTINATION" /E /XC /XN /XO

Then copying the actual links by naming the individually (or using some naming convention, like sl-file1 and usa a sl* pattern) and thus fixing the erroneously overwritten links with:

robocopy "D:\SYMLINKSOURCE\file1" "D:\DESTINATION" /E /XC /XN /XO /SL