ls -laL command for Symbolic Link

jlaruffa · 06-18-2003, 04:08 PM

I have a file in a directory, /home/map/.profile, and this file is a symbolic link to another file.

When i type ls -laL I get:
-rwxr-x--- 44 root sb 258 Jun 18 11:58 .profile

Under Unix, I would get information that tells me where the file really lives.

How do I find this out under Linux? I can tell by the 44 that it is a symbolic link but I don't know where it really is.

Thanks,
Jim

Red Hat Linux

ranger_nemo · 06-18-2003, 04:37 PM

The L option shows info about the file the link points to, not about the link itself. Run it without the L, and you'll get what you want.

I have a ~/mnt with links to the mount points in /mnt...

Code:

[nemo@xxxxx mnt]$ ls
cdrom  floppy  usb

[nemo@xxxxx mnt]$ ls -laL
total 20
drwxrwxr-x    2 nemo     nemo         4096 May 14 16:51 .
drwx------   33 nemo     nemo         4096 Jun 18 16:25 ..
drwxr-xr-x    2 root     root         4096 Apr  5 15:23 cdrom
drwxr-xr-x    2 root     root         4096 Apr  5 15:23 floppy
drwxr-xr-x    2 root     root         4096 Apr  5 20:35 usb

[nemo@xxxxx mnt]$ ls -la
total 8
drwxrwxr-x    2 nemo     nemo         4096 May 14 16:51 .
drwx------   33 nemo     nemo         4096 Jun 18 16:25 ..
lrwxrwxrwx    1 nemo     nemo           10 May 14 16:51 cdrom -> /mnt/cdrom
lrwxrwxrwx    1 nemo     nemo           11 May 14 16:51 floppy -> /mnt/floppy
lrwxrwxrwx    1 nemo     nemo            8 May 14 16:51 usb -> /mnt/usb

jlaruffa · 06-19-2003, 08:02 AM

Thanks for the reply.

Maybe its not a link. Here is the output:

root@acct01 two]# ls -la
total 32
drwx------ 2 two sb 4096 Nov 19 2002 .
drwxr-xr-x 53 root root 4096 Jun 18 11:58 ..
-rw-r--r-- 1 two sb 24 Nov 19 2002 .bash_logout
-rw-r--r-- 1 two sb 191 Nov 19 2002 .bash_profile
-rw-r--r-- 1 two sb 124 Nov 19 2002 .bashrc
-rw-r--r-- 1 two sb 820 Nov 19 2002 .emacs
-rwxr-x--- 44 root sb 258 Jun 18 11:58 .profile
-rw-r--r-- 1 two sb 3511 Nov 19 2002 .screenrc
[root@acct01 two]# pwd
/home/two

The file .profile does not really live in the directory /home/two. It's the same file under every /home/ subdirectory.

I was hoping to see .profile with the -> to tell me where it really is.

Thanks,
Jim

moses · 06-19-2003, 11:07 AM

If it's a hard link, it won't point to anywhere, since it actually shares the same inode and is, in fact, the same file as the one in /home/* (a file with multiple hard links will not be deleted until the last name is removed -- a file can have many names). The 44 tells you that this file actually has 44 names. . .
(man ln, man ls)
You could find all instances of the file by using find or locate. . .

jlaruffa · 06-19-2003, 12:36 PM

Moses,
Thanks for the reply.

I tried locate .profile and it shows all of the paths, but some of the .profile files are local, and some are part of the linked 44.

/home/coe/.profile
/home/bas/.profile
/home/cyb/.profile
/home/kek/.profile
/home/ril/.profile
/home/dob/.profile
/home/anm/.profile
/home/ttt/.profile
/u1/uv/sample/.profile
/u1/uv/sample/?.profile
/u1/uv/.profile
/u1/sbplus/SB+/.profile
/u1/sbplus/SBDEMO/.profile

Is there any way to just display the ones that are linked?

moses · 06-20-2003, 03:07 AM

You might try the find command with the -links option (man find). You could probably do something like this:

Code:

find / -name .profile -links 44

If you KNOW all the files are under /home (there may be some in /etc), then you can limit the search to just /home (find /home -name . . .).

jlaruffa · 06-20-2003, 08:26 AM

That did it! Thanks Moses..

Jim

sriny_81 · 06-22-2003, 12:37 PM

.profile is the scripts which is executed when u log in.. it will be in ur home directory itself(to chk home dir : at shell prompt type : echo $HOME or chk 6th field in '/etc/passwd' to know ur home dir"