diff --git a/qubes-rpc/qfile-agent.c b/qubes-rpc/qfile-agent.c
index c4d789e5..86543fd3 100644
--- a/qubes-rpc/qfile-agent.c
+++ b/qubes-rpc/qfile-agent.c
@@ -10,6 +10,7 @@
 #include <stdlib.h>
 #include <unistd.h>
 #include <errno.h>
+#include <stdbool.h>
 #include <gui-fatal.h>
 #include <libqubes-rpc-filecopy.h>
 
@@ -82,10 +83,17 @@ int main(int argc, char **argv)
     invocation_cwd_fd = open(".", O_PATH | O_DIRECTORY);
     if (invocation_cwd_fd < 0)
         gui_fatal("open \".\"");
+    bool ignore_options = false;
     for (i = 1; i < argc; i++) {
-        if (strcmp(argv[i], "--ignore-symlinks")==0) {
-            ignore_symlinks = 1;
-            continue;
+        if (!ignore_options) {
+            if (strcmp(argv[i], "--ignore-symlinks")==0) {
+                ignore_symlinks = 1;
+                continue;
+            }
+            if (strcmp(argv[i], "--") == 0) {
+                ignore_options = true;
+                continue;
+            }
         }
         if (!*argv[i])
             gui_fatal("Invalid empty argument %i", i);
diff --git a/qubes-rpc/qvm-copy b/qubes-rpc/qvm-copy
index 3726a341..27d1bc2b 100755
--- a/qubes-rpc/qvm-copy
+++ b/qubes-rpc/qvm-copy
@@ -21,7 +21,7 @@
 
 set -e -o pipefail
 
-unset PROGRESS_TYPE OPERATION_TYPE TARGET_TYPE MIN_ARGS FILECOPY_TOTAL_BYTES service
+unset PROGRESS_TYPE OPERATION_TYPE TARGET_TYPE MIN_ARGS FILECOPY_TOTAL_BYTES service ignore_symlinks
 
 case ${0##*/} in
     (qvm-move) OPERATION_TYPE=move TARGET_TYPE=default MIN_ARGS=1;;
@@ -33,9 +33,9 @@ esac
 
 usage () {
     if [ "$TARGET_TYPE" = "vm" ]; then
-        echo "usage: $0 [--without-progress] destination_qube_name FILE [FILE ...]"
+        echo "usage: $0 [--without-progress] [--ignore-symlinks] destination_qube_name FILE [FILE ...]"
     else
-        echo "usage: $0 [--without-progress] FILE [FILE ...]"
+        echo "usage: $0 [--without-progress] [--ignore-symlinks] FILE [FILE ...]"
     fi
 
     echo
@@ -58,6 +58,7 @@ export PROGRESS_TYPE=console
 while [ "$#" -gt 0 ]; do
     case $1 in
         (--without-progress) export PROGRESS_TYPE=none; shift;;
+        (--ignore-symlinks) ignore_symlinks=true; shift;;
         (-h|--help) usage 0;;
         (--) shift; break;;
         (-*) usage 1;;
@@ -85,7 +86,7 @@ fi
 if [[ "$PROGRESS_TYPE" = 'console' ]]; then export FILECOPY_TOTAL_BYTES; fi
 
 /usr/lib/qubes/qrexec-client-vm --filter-escape-chars-stderr -- "$VM" \
-    "$service" /usr/lib/qubes/qfile-agent "$@"
+    "$service" /usr/lib/qubes/qfile-agent ${ignore_symlinks+--ignore-symlinks} -- "$@"
 
 if [ "$OPERATION_TYPE" = "move" ] ; then
     rm -rf -- "$@"