I want to delete all links from a directory, which point to an other certain directory, but I can not delete it by a sh skript.

To more simply reproduce my problem please enter the following commands

1) touch orig
2) ln -s orig linked

the following commands shows that the links has been created correctly:

find . -lname orig

output is:
./linked


but why does this command not show the link?

test="-lname '*'";echo `find . ${test}`

>>no outputline

the variable lname is filled correctly as you see in the output of this line:

test="-lname '*'";echo `echo ${test}`

output:

-lname '*'

Any ideas?

You are asking find to locate all links that point to a file explicitly called '*'. I very much doubt you have any files called '*'. Why are you putting '*' in your script?

0 members found this post helpful.

Because * is a wildcard... and for find that is the correct syntax in this case works fine (You must specify it as '*' or \* and not *)-- for example:

In this case if you run bash with -x (debug info) you will see why this particular instance isn't working.

You also wouldn't want to echo `command`, just command or set the result to a variable. VAR=`command`.

Also of note `` has been depreciated, supposed to use $() these days $(command).

0 members found this post helpful.

Perhaps you want this:

For all links in a directory just omit -lname '<file>'.

Regards,

Alunduil

0 members found this post helpful.

Okay...maybe let me describe my problem somehow else

I want to delete links using the following sh skript:

----------------------------------------------
mysearch="find . -lname '*'"
for i in `${mysearch}`; do
rm $i
done
----------------------------------------------

This skript does not delete the links.

If I replace the rm statement by a debug outoput and run the sh skript this also does not show me an output

----------------------------------------------
mysearch="find . -lname '*'"
for i in `${mysearch}`; do
echo found link $i
done
----------------------------------------------

but if I just enter the following command in the command line it shows me the links.

find . -lname '*'

What have I done wrong in my first script and second script, so the files are not displayed/deleted in the output?

Thanks

Kind Regards
Andre

I'll rewrite one as an example:

Regards,

Alunduil

Thanks for your help, but how can I set the directory name by a variable?

This one does not work: How must I change it ?

-------------------
Directory="*"
for i in $(find . -lname '$Directory');do
echo found link $i
done

-----------------------

Thanks
Kind Regards

Don't be so trigger-happy with the single quotes!

When the shell expands stuff, it explicitly does not substitute variables within single quotes. Thus your script is explicitly looking for the directory name $Directory, not the value that should be substituted.

Also, your use of the wildcard "*" is highly likely to be broken in nearly all cases. If you quote it too much the shell won't expand it and find will look for asterisk as the link target. If you quote it too little it gets expanded too soon, and find will look for the first file name in the current directory as the link target, but then find some illegal stray arguments.

should work better. You'll note I've reverted to back-ticks - they're perfectly good enough for this and rweaver's objection is an irrelevant red herring.

Our first victim of KDE's naming scheme?

It's "script".

Okay..many thanks to all.

one last question. Why does the following script fail

------------------------------------------

Directory="-lname *"
for i in `find . "$Directory"`;do
echo $i
done

------------------------------------------

The following error appears:

find: invalid predicate `-lname *'

The quotes are throwing things off. Take them out as such:
for i in `find . ${Directory}`; do

Regards,

Alunduil

Hi ,

I have done this:



Directory="-lname *"
for i in `find . ${Directory}`;do
echo $i
done

But I still get an error:

find: paths must precede expression
Usage: find [path...] [expression]



Kind Regards

Andre

Instead of "``", use "$()".

I'm so annoyed that I seem to be the only one here that knows about "&>" and "$()".

Sorry, but as I used this script I get the same error:

Directory="-lname *"
for i in $(find . ${Directory});do
echo $i
done


output

find: paths must precede expression
Usage: find [path...] [expression]

Try temporarily turning off bash filename expansion.