LinuxQuestions.org - [SOLVED] blinking red symlinks

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blinking red symlinks

Some symlinks in my home dir are blinking red today.

Code:

[root@jam ~]# ls -la | grep ^l

lrwxrwxrwx  1 root    root          31 Jul  1 15:31 cp-error_log -> /var/log/sw-cp-server/error_log

lrwxrwxrwx  1 root    root          24 Jul  1 15:29 error_log -> /var/log/httpd/error_log

lrwxrwxrwx  1 root    root          16 Jul  1 15:28 maillog -> /var/log/maillog

lrwxrwxrwx  1 root    root          17 Jul  1 15:28 messages -> /var/log/messages

lrwxrwxrwx  1 root    root          28 Jul  1 15:29 ssl_error_log -> /var/log/httpd/ssl_error_log

Ok here's the odd part they are there:

Code:

[root@jam ~]# ls -l `ls -la | grep ^l | awk '{print $11}'`

-rw-r--r--  1 root    root      1231224 Jul  2 15:30 /var/log/httpd/error_log

-rw-r--r--  1 root    root        22442 Jul  2 15:30 /var/log/httpd/ssl_error_log

-rw-r--r--  1 root    root            0 Jul  2 10:26 /var/log/maillog

-rw-r--r--  1 root    root            0 Jul  2 10:26 /var/log/messages

-rw-------  1 root    root      144656 Jul  2 15:30 /var/log/sw-cp-server/error_log

Then I tried:

Code:

[root@jam ~]# rm maillog 

rm: remove symbolic link `maillog'? y

[root@jam ~]# ln -s /var/log/maillog maillog

[root@jam ~]# ls -l | grep maillog

lrwxrwxrwx  1 root    root          16 Jul  2 16:16 maillog -> /var/log/maillog

Stilling blinking red. Any ideas?

I'm thinking it has something to do with permissions. Can you read the files? Try 'less maillog' from your ~. Try 'ls -laL'.

Code:

[root@jam ~]# tail -1 error_log 

[Sat Jul 02 15:30:22 2011] [notice] Apache configured -- resuming normal operations

[root@jam ~]# ls -laL error_log 

-rw-r--r--  1 root    root      1231334 Jul  2 16:55 error_log

[root@jam ~]# ls -l error_log 

lrwxrwxrwx  1 root    root          24 Jul  1 15:29 error_log -> /var/log/httpd/error_log

[root@jam ~]#

still blinking red

Maybe your computer has been invaded by zombies.

Quote:

Zombies are dead processes. You cannot kill the dead. All processes eventually die, and when they do they become zombies.

I thought I was losing my mind, that is got to be it. Thanks ;)

Have you tried doing file -b <symlink>? It's possible that the blinking red may indicate that it's broken… :-\

My :twocents:; hope it helps.

Code:

[root@jam ~]# file -b maillog 

symbolic link to `/var/log/maillog'

Always in the past blinking red symlinks indicated the the file moved or was deleted. But not this time.