#!/bin/sh
set -e
for link; do
    test -h "$link" || continue

    dir=$(dirname "$link")
    reltarget=$(readlink "$link")
    case $reltarget in
        /*) abstarget=$reltarget;;
        *)  abstarget=$dir/$reltarget;;
    esac

    rm -fv "$link"
    cp -afv "$abstarget" "$link" || {
        # on failure, restore the symlink
        rm -rfv "$link"
        ln -sfv "$reltarget" "$link"
    }
done

-H      (c and r mode only) Symbolic links named on the command line will
        be followed; the target of the link will be archived, not the
        link itself.

tar -hcf - sourcedir | tar -xf - -C newdir

tar --help:
-H, --format=FORMAT        create archive of the given format
-h, --dereference          follow symlinks; archive and dump the files they point to

find / -maxdepth 2 -type l -print

find / -maxdepth 2 -type l -exec ./ReplaceSymLink.sh {} ;

find . -type l -exec cp --dereference --recursive '{}' '{}'.dereferenced ;

find . -type l -exec bash -c "echo 'Replacing {} ...';  cp -LR '{}' '{}'.dereferenced;  rm '{}';  mv '{}'.dereferenced '{}'" ;

for i in *; do link=$(readlink $i) && rm $i && mv $link $i; done

"for file in `ls`; do cp -L $file scratchdir/$file; done; mv scratchdir/* ./"

before:
> find . -type l | wc -l
358

> for link in `find . -type l` ; do echo "$link : "; ls -al $link ; cp $link notalink; unlink $link; mv notalink $link ; ls -al $link; done
...

after:
> find . -type l | wc -l
0