Remove a symlink to a directory

Question

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  failed to remove  foo   Directory not empty I then progressed through rm -f  rm -rf and sudo rm -rf  Then I went to find my back-ups   Is there a way to get rid of the symlink with out throwing away the baby with the bathwater

User · Answer

use the  quot unlink quot  command and make sure not to have the   at the end   unlink mySymLink   unlink   deletes a name from the file system  If that name was the last link to a file and no processes have the file open the file is deleted and the space it was using is made available for reuse  If the name was the last link to a file but any processes still have the file open the file will remain in existence until the last file descriptor referring to it is closed   I think this may be problematic if I m reading it correctly   If the name referred to a symbolic link the link is removed  If the name referred to a socket  fifo or device the name for it is removed but processes which have the object open may continue to use it   https   linux die net man 2 unlink

User · Answer

use the  quot unlink quot  command and make sure not to have the   at the end   unlink mySymLink   unlink   deletes a name from the file system  If that name was the last link to a file and no processes have the file open the file is deleted and the space it was using is made available for reuse  If the name was the last link to a file but any processes still have the file open the file will remain in existence until the last file descriptor referring to it is closed   I think this may be problematic if I m reading it correctly   If the name referred to a symbolic link the link is removed  If the name referred to a socket  fifo or device the name for it is removed but processes which have the object open may continue to use it   https   linux die net man 2 unlink

User · Answer

rm should remove the symbolic link   skrall skrall-desktop    mkdir bar skrall skrall-desktop    ln -s bar foo skrall skrall-desktop    ls -l foo lrwxrwxrwx 1 skrall skrall 3 2008-10-16 16 22 foo - gt  bar skrall skrall-desktop    rm foo skrall skrall-desktop    ls -l foo ls  cannot access foo  No such file or directory skrall skrall-desktop    ls -l bar total 0 skrall skrall-desktop

User · Answer

Assuming it actually is a symlink     rm -d symlink   It should figure it out  but since it can t we enable the latent code that was intended for another case that no longer exists but happens to do the right thing here

User · Answer

this works  rm foo   versus this  which doesn t  rm foo    Basically  you need to tell it to delete a file  not delete a directory  I believe the difference between rm and rmdir exists because of differences in the way the C library treats each   At any rate  the first should work  while the second should complain about foo being a directory   If it doesn t work as above  then check your permissions  You need write permission to the containing directory to remove files

User · Answer

use the  quot unlink quot  command and make sure not to have the   at the end   unlink mySymLink   unlink   deletes a name from the file system  If that name was the last link to a file and no processes have the file open the file is deleted and the space it was using is made available for reuse  If the name was the last link to a file but any processes still have the file open the file will remain in existence until the last file descriptor referring to it is closed   I think this may be problematic if I m reading it correctly   If the name referred to a symbolic link the link is removed  If the name referred to a socket  fifo or device the name for it is removed but processes which have the object open may continue to use it   https   linux die net man 2 unlink

User · Answer

If rm cannot remove a symlink  perhaps you need to look at the permissions on the directory that contains the symlink  To remove directory entries  you need write permission on the containing directory

User · Answer

Assuming it actually is a symlink     rm -d symlink   It should figure it out  but since it can t we enable the latent code that was intended for another case that no longer exists but happens to do the right thing here

User · Answer

On CentOS  just run rm linkname and it will ask to  remove symbolic link    Type Y and Enter  the link will be gone and the directory be safe

User · Answer

this works  rm foo   versus this  which doesn t  rm foo    Basically  you need to tell it to delete a file  not delete a directory  I believe the difference between rm and rmdir exists because of differences in the way the C library treats each   At any rate  the first should work  while the second should complain about foo being a directory   If it doesn t work as above  then check your permissions  You need write permission to the containing directory to remove files

User · Answer

use the  quot unlink quot  command and make sure not to have the   at the end   unlink mySymLink   unlink   deletes a name from the file system  If that name was the last link to a file and no processes have the file open the file is deleted and the space it was using is made available for reuse  If the name was the last link to a file but any processes still have the file open the file will remain in existence until the last file descriptor referring to it is closed   I think this may be problematic if I m reading it correctly   If the name referred to a symbolic link the link is removed  If the name referred to a socket  fifo or device the name for it is removed but processes which have the object open may continue to use it   https   linux die net man 2 unlink

User · Answer

I also had the same problem  So I suggest to try unlink  lt absolute path gt   For example unlink    lt USER gt   lt SOME OTHER DIRECTORY gt  foo

User · Answer

On CentOS  just run rm linkname and it will ask to  remove symbolic link    Type Y and Enter  the link will be gone and the directory be safe

User · Answer

Assuming your setup is something like  ln -s  mnt bar   foo  then you should be able to do a rm foo with no problem   If you can t  make sure you are the owner of the foo and have permission to write execute the file   Removing foo will not touch bar  unless you do it recursively

User · Answer

If rm cannot remove a symlink  perhaps you need to look at the permissions on the directory that contains the symlink  To remove directory entries  you need write permission on the containing directory

User · Answer

I had this problem with MinGW  actually Git Bash  running on a Windows Server  None of the above suggestions seemed to work  In the end a made a copy of the directory in case then deleted the soft link in Windows Explorer then deleted the item in the Recycle Bin  It made noises like it was deleting the files but didn t  Do make a backup though

User · Answer

Assuming it actually is a symlink     rm -d symlink   It should figure it out  but since it can t we enable the latent code that was intended for another case that no longer exists but happens to do the right thing here

User · Answer

Use rm symlinkname but do not include a forward slash at the end  do not use  rm symlinkname    You will then be asked if you want to remove the symlink  y to answer yes

User · Answer

this works  rm foo   versus this  which doesn t  rm foo    Basically  you need to tell it to delete a file  not delete a directory  I believe the difference between rm and rmdir exists because of differences in the way the C library treats each   At any rate  the first should work  while the second should complain about foo being a directory   If it doesn t work as above  then check your permissions  You need write permission to the containing directory to remove files

User · Answer

Use rm symlinkname but do not include a forward slash at the end  do not use  rm symlinkname    You will then be asked if you want to remove the symlink  y to answer yes

User · Answer

Assuming it actually is a symlink     rm -d symlink   It should figure it out  but since it can t we enable the latent code that was intended for another case that no longer exists but happens to do the right thing here

User · Answer

this works  rm foo   versus this  which doesn t  rm foo    Basically  you need to tell it to delete a file  not delete a directory  I believe the difference between rm and rmdir exists because of differences in the way the C library treats each   At any rate  the first should work  while the second should complain about foo being a directory   If it doesn t work as above  then check your permissions  You need write permission to the containing directory to remove files

User · Answer

rm should remove the symbolic link   skrall skrall-desktop    mkdir bar skrall skrall-desktop    ln -s bar foo skrall skrall-desktop    ls -l foo lrwxrwxrwx 1 skrall skrall 3 2008-10-16 16 22 foo - gt  bar skrall skrall-desktop    rm foo skrall skrall-desktop    ls -l foo ls  cannot access foo  No such file or directory skrall skrall-desktop    ls -l bar total 0 skrall skrall-desktop

User · Answer

you can use unlink  in the folder where you have created your symlink

User · Answer

If rm cannot remove a symlink  perhaps you need to look at the permissions on the directory that contains the symlink  To remove directory entries  you need write permission on the containing directory

User · Answer

Assuming your setup is something like  ln -s  mnt bar   foo  then you should be able to do a rm foo with no problem   If you can t  make sure you are the owner of the foo and have permission to write execute the file   Removing foo will not touch bar  unless you do it recursively

User · Answer

rm should remove the symbolic link   skrall skrall-desktop    mkdir bar skrall skrall-desktop    ln -s bar foo skrall skrall-desktop    ls -l foo lrwxrwxrwx 1 skrall skrall 3 2008-10-16 16 22 foo - gt  bar skrall skrall-desktop    rm foo skrall skrall-desktop    ls -l foo ls  cannot access foo  No such file or directory skrall skrall-desktop    ls -l bar total 0 skrall skrall-desktop

User · Answer

rm should remove the symbolic link   skrall skrall-desktop    mkdir bar skrall skrall-desktop    ln -s bar foo skrall skrall-desktop    ls -l foo lrwxrwxrwx 1 skrall skrall 3 2008-10-16 16 22 foo - gt  bar skrall skrall-desktop    rm foo skrall skrall-desktop    ls -l foo ls  cannot access foo  No such file or directory skrall skrall-desktop    ls -l bar total 0 skrall skrall-desktop

User · Answer

Assuming your setup is something like  ln -s  mnt bar   foo  then you should be able to do a rm foo with no problem   If you can t  make sure you are the owner of the foo and have permission to write execute the file   Removing foo will not touch bar  unless you do it recursively

User · Answer

I also had the same problem  So I suggest to try unlink  lt absolute path gt   For example unlink    lt USER gt   lt SOME OTHER DIRECTORY gt  foo

User · Answer

you can use unlink  in the folder where you have created your symlink

User · Answer

I had this problem with MinGW  actually Git Bash  running on a Windows Server  None of the above suggestions seemed to work  In the end a made a copy of the directory in case then deleted the soft link in Windows Explorer then deleted the item in the Recycle Bin  It made noises like it was deleting the files but didn t  Do make a backup though

User · Answer

Assuming your setup is something like  ln -s  mnt bar   foo  then you should be able to do a rm foo with no problem   If you can t  make sure you are the owner of the foo and have permission to write execute the file   Removing foo will not touch bar  unless you do it recursively

User · Answer

If rm cannot remove a symlink  perhaps you need to look at the permissions on the directory that contains the symlink  To remove directory entries  you need write permission on the containing directory

[linux] Remove a symlink to a directory

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