diff --git a/pkgs/build-support/rust/default.nix b/pkgs/build-support/rust/default.nix
index a69ef5c6b07f..91569d0c070a 100644
--- a/pkgs/build-support/rust/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/build-support/rust/default.nix
@@ -33,7 +33,7 @@ in stdenv.mkDerivation (args // {
 
     echo "Using cargo deps from $cargoDeps"
 
-    cp -r "$cargoDeps" deps
+    cp -a "$cargoDeps" deps
     chmod +w deps -R
 
     # It's OK to use /dev/null as the URL because by the time we do this, cargo