ln -sf not working??

registering · 09-27-2006, 09:48 AM

Hello. If I have a symbolic link:

dir -> dir1

and execute:

ln -sf dir2 dir

dir is unchanged and still points to dir1. I must:

rm -f dir; ln -sf dir2 dir

to do what I want. Do I misunderstand the "-f" option, because I thought a "-f" would force the change to occur. This is on SuSE Enterprise Server 9 via ssh (I do not have a direct console). On a SuSE 9.1, I cannot reproduce this ("ln -f" does relink dir to dir2).

Any ideas? Thanks.

MensaWater · 09-27-2006, 02:23 PM

The target of your ln is a symbolic link so instead of overwiting the symbolic link itself it directs it to the directory (dir1) to which the symbolic link points. Since it redirects it puts it IN the directory rather than overwriting the link itself.

The whole point in symbolic links is to do this redirection so the above makes sense to me.

registering · 09-27-2006, 02:41 PM

Thanks, you're right, I never noticed it was creating the link INSIDE the directory. It looks like if I add the "-n" option (no dereference) it does what I want (i.e., ln -snf). Thanks!