Perform rsync while following sym links

I have a directory that contains symbolic links to other directories located on different media on my system:

/opt/lun1/2011
/opt/lun1/2010
/opt/lun2/2009
/opt/lun2/2008
/opt/lun3/2007

But the symbolic links show up as:

/files/2011
/files/2010
/files/2009
/files/2008
/files/2007

How can I perform an rsync that follows the symbolic links?

e.g.:

rsync -XXX /files/ user@server:/files/

Solution 1:

The -L flag to rsync will sync the contents of files or directories linked to, rather than the symbolic link.

Solution 2:

Just ran into this problem. And if you want rsync to treat symlinked directories as directories, you want the K option

rsync -K /files/ user@server:/files/

Solution 3:

You need both -L and -K if you have symlinks on both sides, e.g. you already had your 1st rsync done and want to update the backup using rsync.

    -L, --copy-links            transform symlink into referent file/dir
    -K, --keep-dirlinks         treat symlinked dir on receiver as dir

In such cases, if you use only -L, the symlinks on the receiver side will be wiped out and new real dir will be made.