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Screenshot of terminal with symbolic link

Can you tell me what this is in the area marked red?

If I want to change /media/files/tb-prod/files to some other path, how would I do that?

Matthias Braun
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Jalil Khan
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    yea.. but i didnt know about symbolic link before thats why i added screenshot to someone help. and @michael homer answered me for that. – Jalil Khan Aug 26 '14 at 03:27
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    The other question should be marked as a duplicate of this one. This one is more useful. – mbomb007 Aug 31 '20 at 18:10

1 Answers1

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files is a symbolic link to /media/files/tb-prod/files. When you access files or anything inside it, you'll really access the path under /media. Symbolic links are made and updated using the ln command. This link could have been made with:

ln -s /media/files/tb-prod/files files

-s means to make a symbolic link. To update a link, either delete the link and create it as above, or use the -f option to ln as well. If you are linking to a folder, you should include the -n option:

ln -sfn /a/new/path files

This will replace the link with a new one pointing at /a/new/path.

The -n option is necessary when linking to a different target folder to avoid creating a sub-folder inside the old target folder files and instead replace the symbolic link completely.

Matthias Braun
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Michael Homer
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    Example how to delete the symlink would be good – Andrew Atkinson Apr 30 '18 at 12:29
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    @AndrewAtkinson: you delete a symlink as if it's a normal file, with rm /path/to/symlink. – henrebotha Jun 22 '18 at 10:21
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    I don't understand what the -n does, even after reading the man page. linking to symlinks of directories seems to work without it.. Anyone know? – naught101 Jul 30 '19 at 06:10
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    @naught101 It's not for linking to directories, it's for replacing links to directories instead of making a new link inside the directory. – Michael Homer Jul 30 '19 at 06:14
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    @MichaelHomer AHHH!! I HATE that default behaviour. -n is something I've been wanting for ages! Thank you for the clarification! – naught101 Jul 30 '19 at 12:52
  • @naught101 The default behavior is useful, but that's personal opinion I guess. It has been a gotcha for me too before getting used to it. – zazke Nov 08 '23 at 02:23