Re: Symbolic link problem

[Eric Blake]

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According to NEWPORT Dennis on 12/6/2007 7:54 AM:
> mkdir targ
> ln -s targ src
> ll -rt
> ln -s targ src
> 
> ll targ/
> total 0
> lrwxrwxrwx  1 cwbspr2 wbspr2 4 Dec  6 15:50 targ -> targ
> 
> i.e. inside the targ directory you get a targ symlink to targ. 
> 
> This surely isn't the expected behaviour. Can anyone explain this ?

Actually, it IS expected behavior, as required by POSIX.  If the final
argument can be resolved as a directory, then the link is created inside
that directory.  Or, in other words, look at ln --help | head:

Usage: ln [OPTION]... [-T] TARGET LINK_NAME   (1st form)
  or:  ln [OPTION]... TARGET                  (2nd form)
  or:  ln [OPTION]... TARGET... DIRECTORY     (3rd form)
  or:  ln [OPTION]... -t DIRECTORY TARGET...  (4th form)
In the 1st form, create a link to TARGET with the name LINK_NAME.
In the 2nd form, create a link to TARGET in the current directory.
In the 3rd and 4th forms, create links to each TARGET in DIRECTORY.
Create hard links by default, symbolic links with --symbolic.
When creating hard links, each TARGET must exist.

In your case, the first attempt was of the 1st form, while the second
attempt is of the 3rd form.  Use -T (a GNU extension, not available in all
ln implementations) to guarantee the first form.

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- --
Don't work too hard, make some time for fun as well!

Eric Blake             address@hidden
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