Using rsync's archive flag without copying symbolic links

Solution 1:

Try the following:

rsync -a --no-links ...

or, the slightly shorter:

rsync -a --no-l ...

Note that the --no-links/--no-l switch must come after the -a switch on the command line, otherwise the --links implied by -a is turned back on again.

Solution 2:

No. You could use an alias instead. Put the line

alias mrsync="rsync -rptgoD"

inside your ~/.profile and after the next login, you can call just mrsync and have these parameters implicit with the alias.