Frequent question: How do I update a soft link in Linux?

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Then, there are three ways to change the symlink:

  1. Use ln with -f force and even for directories -n (inode could get reused): ln -sfn /some/new/path linkname.
  2. Remove the symlink and create a new one (even for directories): rm linkname; ln -s /some/new/path linkname.

To view the symbolic links in a directory:

  1. Open a terminal and move to that directory.
  2. Type the command: ls -la. This shall long list all the files in the directory even if they are hidden.
  3. The files that start with l are your symbolic link files.

-L tests whether there is a symlink, broken or not. By combining with -e you can test whether the link is valid (links to a directory or file), not just whether it exists. So if file is really file and not just a symbolic link you can do all these tests and get an exit status whose value indicates the error condition.

Simplest way: cd to where the symbolic link is located and do ls -l to list the details of the files. The part to the right of -> after the symbolic link is the destination to which it is pointing.

To remove a symbolic link, use either the rm or unlink command followed by the name of the symlink as an argument. When removing a symbolic link that points to a directory do not append a trailing slash to the symlink name.

A symbolic link, also termed a soft link, is a special kind of file that points to another file, much like a shortcut in Windows or a Macintosh alias. Unlike a hard link, a symbolic link does not contain the data in the target file. It simply points to another entry somewhere in the file system.

Soft Link contains the path for original file and not the contents. Removing soft link doesn’t affect anything but removing original file, the link becomes “dangling” link which points to nonexistent file. A soft link can link to a directory.

To create a symbolic link pass the -s option to the ln command followed by the target file and the name of link. In the following example a file is symlinked into the bin folder. In the following example a mounted external drive is symlinked into a home directory.

There are limited features for working with symlinks; right-click the symbolic link > click ClearCase > Explore Link Target | Properties of Symlink. In a snapshot view, the symbolic link target must be loaded in your view also, in order for the Symlink Target Operations to appear.

By default, the ln command creates hard links. To create a symbolic link, use the -s ( –symbolic ) option. If both the FILE and LINK are given, ln will create a link from the file specified as the first argument ( FILE ) to the file specified as the second argument ( LINK ).

The reason hard-linking directories is not allowed is a little technical. Essentially, they break the file-system structure. You should generally not use hard links anyway. Symbolic links allow most of the same functionality without causing problems (e.g ln -s target link ).

One can use tar to move a folder containing relative symbolic links.

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