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 (/usr/local/nginx/conf/) to be in the contents of the target directory (/etc/nginx). But when I execute the code, /etc/nginx contains a directory called conf, instead of the contents of conf. That directory contains the contents I want, but in the wrong location.
Why did it put a directory in the target folder, instead of just putting the contents of the directory in the target folder?
That's what ln is documented to do when the target already exists and is a directory. If you want /etc/nginx to be a symlink rather than contain a symlink, you had better not create it as a directory first!
In script is usefull something like this:
if [ ! -d /etc/nginx ]; then ln -s /usr/local/nginx/conf/ /etc/nginx > /dev/null 2>&1; fi
it prevents before re-create "bad" looped symlink after re-run script
Source: Stackoverflow.com