RedHat 8.0 symbolic links?

cliffyman · 03-04-2003, 01:56 PM

Has anyone else noticed issues with RedHat 8.0's ln command to make symbolic links? Call me crazy, but when I do something simple like:

ln -s /usr/local/src /home/meyers

and then

rm /home/meyers

it tries to remove all the files and dirs within /usr/local/src ? When I do a ln -s on my RedHat 7.2 system and then remove the symbolic link, it removes it just like any other file.

Am I missing something - did something change here? Am I losing my mind?

trickykid · 03-04-2003, 03:00 PM

Something is wrong with your links then.

Have you tried going into your home directory and just issuing this:

rm meyers

cliffyman · 03-04-2003, 03:02 PM

Any idea what's going on down below here? The /usr/local/src dir is owner root, group root, and chmoded 755.

Code:

[meyers@vanadium meyers]$ cd /home/meyers/
[meyers@vanadium meyers]$ ls -la
total 28
drwx------    3 meyers   meyers       4096 Mar  4 15:04 .
drwxr-xr-x    5 root     root         4096 Mar  2 09:37 ..
-rw-------    1 meyers   meyers        482 Mar  4 15:56 .bash_history
-rw-r--r--    1 meyers   meyers         24 Mar  2 09:37 .bash_logout
-rw-r--r--    1 meyers   meyers        191 Mar  2 09:37 .bash_profile
-rw-r--r--    1 meyers   meyers        124 Mar  2 09:37 .bashrc
drwxrwxr-x    3 meyers   meyers       4096 Mar  3 09:41 .cpan
[meyers@vanadium meyers]$ ln -s /usr/local/src/
[meyers@vanadium meyers]$ ls -la
total 28
drwx------    3 meyers   meyers       4096 Mar  4 16:10 .
drwxr-xr-x    5 root     root         4096 Mar  2 09:37 ..
-rw-------    1 meyers   meyers        482 Mar  4 15:56 .bash_history
-rw-r--r--    1 meyers   meyers         24 Mar  2 09:37 .bash_logout
-rw-r--r--    1 meyers   meyers        191 Mar  2 09:37 .bash_profile
-rw-r--r--    1 meyers   meyers        124 Mar  2 09:37 .bashrc
drwxrwxr-x    3 meyers   meyers       4096 Mar  3 09:41 .cpan
lrwxrwxrwx    1 meyers   meyers         15 Mar  4 16:10 src -> /usr/local/src/
[meyers@vanadium meyers]$ rm src/
rm: remove write-protected directory `src/'? y
rm: remove write-protected directory `src//apache_1.3.27'? n
rm: remove write-protected regular file `src//mod_perl-1.27/t/docs/subr/index.html'? n
rm: remove write-protected regular file `src//mod_perl-1.27/t/docs/test.shtml'? n
rm: remove write-protected regular file `src//mod_perl-1.27/t/docs/blib.pl'? 
[meyers@vanadium meyers]$

nxny · 03-04-2003, 03:21 PM

What is rm aliased as for your root environment?

Have you tried rm src instead of rm src/ ?

cliffyman · 03-04-2003, 03:31 PM

Your second suggestion hit the nail on the head - rm src works kills the soft link as expected but rm src/ for some reason tries to kill the linked directory itself. In RedHat 7.2, rm src and rm src/ do the exact same thing.

Thanks again everyone for the help with this stupid question.

nxny · 03-04-2003, 04:04 PM

I wouldnt blame it on RH version difference. What version of fileutils ( of which rm is a part ) are you using? Try
rm --version
in both environments and post.

Again, do
alias | grep rm
in both environments.

Curious!!!!

cliffyman · 03-04-2003, 11:40 PM

RH 7.2 uses fileutils version 4.1 and RH 8.0 uses fileutils version 4.1.9

trickykid · 03-04-2003, 11:59 PM

Well most likely when your trying to rm like:

rm src/

Then it reads it like a directory I would presume for some reason. Links are just files, so when deleting them, you don't need to put the / at the end, just rm the actual filename in your case.

But testing on my Slack box, it worked both ways for me with no problems. And the version I have is 4.1

cliffyman · 03-05-2003, 07:06 AM

Right, and it works fine on RedHat 7.2 and that uses fileutils 4.1 also - something changed in 4.1.9. Thanks for help clearing up the mystery folks!