Unexpected handling of symbolic link on Linux

Bug description

I have a css file which I want to incorporate into every book project of mine to establish baseline styles. I created a main copy of the file and created a symbolic link to the main copy in a project directory. But when compiling, instead of copying the link target file into the _book directory, a copy of the symbolic link file is made instead. Having a symbolic link file in the rendered static site directory is of no value.

When I use e.g. cp to copy a symbolic link file from the command line, a new copy of the link target file is created instead of a copy of the symbolic link file. I expected the same behavior when rendering my project.

I don't know if this should be considered a bug report or an enhancement request.

Steps to reproduce

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Expected behavior

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Actual behavior

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Your environment

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Quarto check output

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Start by reproducing the Linux rendering case with a CSS file linked into a project, then inspect the static-asset copying path used to create the _book directory. Compare the rendered output with copying the link through cp. Done means the output contains the link target's file contents rather than a symbolic link.