Re: Bug or feature? replace symlink to directory with ln -fs does not work

[Paul Eggert]

Peter Kratzer <address@hidden> writes:

> Contrary to the Unix behaviour (e.g. HP-UX) using this command on a
> GNU/Linux system does not replace the link, but creates a new link in the
> originally referenced directory.

Actually, HP-UX is the odd man out here.  GNU "ln" is compatible
with Solaris (at least Solaris 10, which I just checked).  And
POSIX requires the GNU and Solaris behavior.

Perhaps you can file a bug report with HP.

Recent versions of GNU "ln" support an option -T that should do what
you want, e.g., "ln -fsT dir.1 dirlink".  Older versions have an -n
option that should also work.  These options are all POSIX extensions,
though, so they might not be portable to HP-UX.