Is there a way to remove a symbolic link
 

I was installing MySQL earlier today and the manual says to make a symbolic link to the mysql folder. But when I tried that I got an error saying that mysql already exists. So I'm wondering if there's a way that I can remove a symbolic link and if there is a way to find what a given link is linked to. Maybe there is a system config file with all the links in them or something.

just delete it like a normal file. "rm /var/something/symlink". to see where a link goes, just look at "ls -l /var/something/symlink" and it will tell you where it goes. there is no central registry for them, they are their own self enclosed entity, just like a normal file.

"So I'm wondering if there's a way that I can remove a symbolic link and if there is a way to find what a given link is linked to."

A symbolic link is simply a specialized type of file. You can manipulate symbolic links with the same commands used to manupilate an ordinary file. You can delete a symbolic link with the rm command and it will delete only the symbolic link, not the file linked too. You can list the files ina directory with:
ls -l /directoryname
and the ls command will show what files any symbolic link links to.

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Steve Stites

The closest thing to a central file which stores all symlinks is an application called symlinks. You can use it to find all symlinks, find symlinks which point to non-existant files, etc.