Questions tagged [symlink]
Symlink is short for symbolic link (also soft link). It is a term for any file that contains a reference to another file or directory in the form of an absolute or relative path and that affects pathname resolution.
symlink
2,485
questions
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How can I symlink a file in Linux? [closed]
I want to create a symbolic link in Linux. I have written this Bash command where the first path is the folder I want to link, and the second path is the compiled source.
ln -s '+basebuild+'/IpDome-...
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votes
4
answers
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How does Git handle symbolic links?
If I have a file or directory that is a symbolic link and I commit it to a Git repository, what happens to it?
I would assume that it leaves it as a symbolic link until the file is deleted and then ...
- 35.9k
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votes
10
answers
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Remove a symlink to a directory [closed]
I have a symlink to an important directory. I want to get rid of that symlink, while keeping the directory behind it.
I tried rm and get back rm: cannot remove 'foo'.
I tried rmdir and got back rmdir: ...
- 15.4k
1125
votes
23
answers
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views
What is the difference between a symbolic link and a hard link?
Recently I was asked this during a job interview. I was honest and said I knew how a symbolic link behaves and how to create one, but do not understand the use of a hard link and how it differs from a ...
- 43.1k
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8
answers
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How do I find all of the symlinks in a directory tree?
I'm trying to find all of the symlinks within a directory tree for my website. I know that I can use find to do this but I can't figure out how to recursively check the directories.
I've tried this ...
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364
votes
19
answers
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views
Git symbolic links in Windows
Our developers use a mix of Windows and Unix-based OSes. Therefore, symbolic links created on Unix machines become a problem for Windows developers. In Windows (MSysGit), the symbolic link is ...
- 8,131
338
votes
11
answers
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Creating hard and soft links using PowerShell
Can PowerShell 1.0 create hard and soft links analogous to the Unix variety?
If this isn't built in, can someone point me to a site that has a ps1 script that mimics this?
This is a necessary ...
- 3,846
299
votes
8
answers
438k
views
How to check if a symlink exists
I'm trying to check if a symlink exists in bash. Here's what I've tried.
mda=/usr/mda
if [ ! -L $mda ]; then
echo "=> File doesn't exist"
fi
mda='/usr/mda'
if [ ! -L $mda ]; then
echo "=> ...
- 11.5k
276
votes
14
answers
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views
How can I get Git to follow symlinks?
Is my best be going to be a shell script which replaces symlinks with copies, or is there another way of telling Git to follow symlinks?
PS: I know it's not very secure, but I only want to do it in a ...
- 5,612
268
votes
21
answers
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views
How to resolve symbolic links in a shell script
Given an absolute or relative path (in a Unix-like system), I would like to determine the full path of the target after resolving any intermediate symlinks. Bonus points for also resolving ~username ...
- 979k
254
votes
3
answers
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Create a symbolic link of directory in Ubuntu [closed]
Below is my code for creating a symlink of a directory:
sudo ln -s /usr/local/nginx/conf/ /etc/nginx
I already created the directory /etc/nginx. I just want the contents of the source directory (/...
user959129
231
votes
10
answers
374k
views
How to see full absolute path of a symlink
When I'm using ls -la symlinkName or stat symlinkName not all the path is displayed
(e.g ../../../one/two/file.txt)
What is the linux command that reveals the full path?
- 3,598
200
votes
6
answers
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views
What is the difference between NTFS Junction Points and Symbolic Links?
At a high level, the only obvious difference between NTFS Junction Points and Symbolic Links is that Junctions are only able to be directories, while SymLinks are allowed to also target files.
What ...
- 106k
193
votes
5
answers
172k
views
Cannot create a symlink inside of /usr/bin even as sudo [closed]
When I try to symlink a binary in my /usr/bin folder, I get an Operation not permitted error:
sudo ln -s /usr/bin/python2.7 /usr/bin/python2
ln: /usr/bin/python2: Operation not permitted
Even as ...
- 8,907
171
votes
16
answers
148k
views
Docker follow symlink outside context
Yet another Docker symlink question. I have a bunch of files that I want to copy over to all my Docker builds. My dir structure is:
parent_dir
- common_files
- file.txt
- dir1
...
- 3,899
148
votes
4
answers
173k
views
How do I symlink all files from one directory to another in bash? [closed]
I want to link ( ln -s ) all files that are in /mnt/usr/lib/ into /usr/lib/
There are lots of files, how can it be done quickly? :)
KooT
145
votes
8
answers
174k
views
Can you change what a symlink points to after it is created?
Does any operating system provide a mechanism (system call — not command line program) to change the pathname referenced by a symbolic link (symlink) — other than by unlinking the old one and creating ...
- 746k
144
votes
3
answers
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symbolic link: find all files that link to this file
Hallo all, I need to do this in linux:
Given: file name 'foo.txt'
Find: all files that are symbolic links to 'foo.txt'
How to do it? Thanks!
- 4,761
127
votes
8
answers
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views
Can sphinx link to documents that are not located in directories below the root document?
I am using Sphinx to document a non-Python project. I want to distribute ./doc folders in each submodule, containing submodule_name.rst files to document that module. I then want to suck those files ...
- 1,522
120
votes
7
answers
146k
views
How do I remove a symlink?
I just created the symbolic link sudo ln -s /usr/local/mysql/lib/libmysqlclient.18.dylib /usr/lib/libmysqlclient.18.dylib and am wondering: how can I get rid of it if I wanted to? How would I do this?
- 38.6k
115
votes
5
answers
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Nginx sites-enabled, sites-available: Cannot create soft-link between config files in Ubuntu 12.04
I am trying to create soft links between config files containing server blocks in the sites-enabled and sites-available directories in /etc/nginx/.
The command I am using is:
sudo ln -s sites-...
- 4,561
106
votes
14
answers
165k
views
Apache won't follow symlinks (403 Forbidden)
I'm having some trouble setting up Apache on Ubuntu. I've been following this guide.
# /usr/sbin/apache2 -v
Server version: Apache/2.2.17 (Ubuntu)
Server built: Feb 22 2011 18:33:02
My public ...
- 6,159
103
votes
6
answers
94k
views
How to find files excluding symbolic links?
I want to find files in Linux that follow a certain pattern but I am not interested in symbolic links.
There doesn't seem to be an option to the find command for that.
How shall I do ?
- 15.5k
102
votes
3
answers
79k
views
Does Amazon S3 support symlinks?
I have an object which I would like to address using different keys without actually copying the object itself, like a symlink in Linux. Does Amazon S3 provide such a thing?
- 10.6k
96
votes
3
answers
21k
views
How do I change my pwd to the real path of a symlinked directory?
Here's a rather elementary *nix question:
Given the following symlink creation:
ln -s /usr/local/projects/myproject/ myproject
... from my home directory /home/jvf/, entering the myproject symlink ...
- 3,864
88
votes
3
answers
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views
How to check if a directory/file/symlink exists with one command in Ruby
Is there a single way of detecting if a directory/file/symlink/etc. entity (more generalized) exists?
I need a single function because I need to check an array of paths that could be directories, ...
- 1,693
87
votes
10
answers
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views
Is there a way to edit a symbolic link without deleting it first? [duplicate]
So I created a symbolic link:
ln -s /location/to/link linkname
Now I want to change the location that the symlink links to. How do I do that? Is there a way to do it without deleting it first?
- 235k
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votes
6
answers
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views
how to find the target file's full(absolute path) of the symbolic link or soft link in python
when i give
ls -l /etc/fonts/conf.d/70-yes-bitmaps.conf
lrwxrwxrwx <snip> /etc/fonts/conf.d/70-yes-bitmaps.conf -> ../conf.avail/70-yes-bitmaps.conf
so for a symbolic link or soft link, ...
- 45.3k
84
votes
9
answers
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views
Delete all broken symbolic links with a line?
For a given folder, how can I delete all broken links within it?
I found this answer that shows how to delete one broken link, but I can't put that together in only one line. Is there a one-liner for ...
- 19.9k
82
votes
8
answers
80k
views
Telling git to ignore symlinks
This question has appeared in similar forms here and here, but they don't seem to match up with what I'm looking for.
I'm making a project in StaticMatic, a Ruby static site generator. Basically, it'...
- 3,661
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votes
16
answers
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views
How to convert symlink to regular file?
What is the most direct way to convert a symlink into a regular file (i.e. a copy of the symlink target)?
Suppose filename is a symlink to target. The obvious procedure to turn it into a copy is:
...
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76
votes
9
answers
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views
Is there a way to check if there are symbolic links pointing to a directory?
I have a folder on my server to which I had a number of symbolic links pointing. I've since created a new folder and I want to change all those symbolic links to point to the new folder. I'd ...
- 543k
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5
answers
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is there a way to see the actual contents of a symlink?
When you do
cat some-symlink-to-some-real-file
it shows the contents of the real file, not what is within the symlink itself. Is there a way to see what's actually in it?
- 2,329
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votes
4
answers
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views
Docker and symlinks
I've got a repo set up like this:
/config
config.json
/worker-a
Dockerfile
<symlink to config.json>
/code
/worker-b
Dockerfile
<symlink to config.json>
/code
However,...
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68
votes
3
answers
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views
What happens when I clone a repository with symlinks on Windows?
There's been a lot of questions about adding support for symlinks on Windows. But, what actually happens when I clone a repository with symlinks on Windows?
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votes
7
answers
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Linux: Find all symlinks of a given 'original' file? (reverse 'readlink')
Consider the following command line snippet:
$ cd /tmp/
$ mkdir dirA
$ mkdir dirB
$ echo "the contents of the 'original' file" > orig.file
$ ls -la orig.file
-rw-r--r-- 1 $USER $USER 36 ...
- 38.1k
65
votes
8
answers
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views
How can I detect whether a symlink is broken in Bash?
I run find and iterate through the results with [ \( -L $F \) ] to collect certain symbolic links.
I am wondering if there is an easy way to determine if the link is broken (points to a non-...
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How do I overcome the "The symbolic link cannot be followed because its type is disabled." error when getting the target of a symbolic link?
Following on from a previous question, I am creating a symbolic link on a Server 2008 from a Vista machine using UNC paths. I can create the link just fine. I can go to the Server 2008 box and double ...
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5
answers
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How to get symlink target in Python?
Using Python, I need to check whether hundreds of symlinks are correct and recreate them when not. What I do now is to compare real paths of what I want and what I have, but it's slow because it's ...
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`os.symlink` vs `ln -s`
I need to create a symlink for every item of dir1 (file or directory) inside dir2. dir2 already exists and is not a symlink. In Bash I can easily achieve this by:
ln -s /home/guest/dir1/* /home/guest/...
- 5,996
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2
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In Bash, how do I safely determine what a soft link points to?
I need to process a number of directories, determine what files in them are symlinks, and what they link to. This sounds simple, but I have no control over the presence of control or other characters ...
- 4,167
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votes
5
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Symlink broken right after creation
I downloaded the linux Tor Browser package, which is a self-contained folder. I made a symlink to the run script:
$ ln -s torbrowser/start-tor-browser ~/bin/torbrowser
However, the link was broken ...
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votes
5
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Enable native NTFS symbolic links for Cygwin
Recent NTFS and Windows implement symlinks:
NTFS junction point can be used as directory symlink since NTFS 3.0 (Windows 2000) using linkd or junction tools.
NTFS symbolic link can also be used as ...
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3
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Does creating a symbolic link to another symbolic link have any side-effects?
Does creating a symlink to another symlink on a linux box have any side effects (specifically in terms of performance)?
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3
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How do I get the target of a symlink?
I have a string containing the file system path to an existing symlink. I want to get the path that this link points to.
Basically I want the same that I'd get through this bit of hackery:
s = "path/...
- 78.9k
53
votes
8
answers
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views
Modifying a symlink in python
How do I change a symlink to point from one file to another in Python?
The os.symlink function only seems to work to create new symlinks.
- 6,172
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votes
9
answers
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Find out whether a file is a symbolic link in PowerShell
I am having a PowerShell script which is walking a directory tree, and sometimes I have auxiliary files hardlinked there which should not be processed. Is there an easy way of finding out whether a ...
- 351k
48
votes
3
answers
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Nginx not following symlinks
I have installed nginx on Ubuntu 12.04. However, nginx does not seem to follow symlinks. I understand that there is a config change required for this but I am not able to find where to make the change....
- 3,605
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votes
2
answers
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views
How can I derefence symbolic links in bash? [duplicate]
How can I take any given path in bash and convert it to it's canonical form, dereferencing any symbolic links that may be contained within the path?
For example:
~$ mkdir /tmp/symtest
~$ cd /tmp/...
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9
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Check if a file is real or a symbolic link
Is there a way to tell using C# if a file is real or a symbolic link?
I've dug through the MSDN W32 docs, and can't find anything for checking this. I'm using CreateSymbolicLink from here, and it's ...
- 5,378