2
I did:
ln -s /DATA/ ./base_DATA/
and I'd like to unlink. Simply:
unlink ./base_DATA
but... unlink: cannot unlink './base_DATA': Is a directory
According to this answer (and many other online) the problem is usually the trailing space in the unlink command. But I get this error regardless.
Any ideas how to tackle this?
alex
Posted 2018-06-07T09:19:27.507
Reputation: 550
3
./base_DATA/ is a normal directory that existed before. Your ln command created a symlink inside it. The symlink is ./base_DATA/DATA. You can unlink it:
unlink ./base_DATA/DATA
Kamil Maciorowski
Posted 2018-06-07T09:19:27.507
Reputation: 38 429
I see, this makes sense. And works obviously. Thanks – alex – 2018-06-07T09:25:15.497
-1
on Red Hat, when you had directory A and did
ln -s A B
successfully, and now would like to unlink B do:
mv A AA
rm B
mv AA A
and you are back to your original directory name A without the soft link.
WRJ
Posted 2018-06-07T09:19:27.507
Reputation: 1
unlinkis not the opposite ofls -s. It is basically same asrm(in this case.rmhas more powers.). – ctrl-alt-delor – 2018-06-07T09:56:32.387If using gnu
lnthen consider using the-tand-Toption. They are designed to make the arguments tocp,mv, andlnunambiguous. – ctrl-alt-delor – 2018-06-07T09:58:05.070@ctrl-alt-delor doesn't
rm -rdelete the contents of linked diretory? – alex – 2018-06-07T09:59:46.753rm -rwill remove a directory and everything in it. It will also remove a single file (including a symlink).rmcan also take a list of filenames.unlinkexcepts one filename, and only removes single files. Note: nether delete, they remove/unlink directory entries. If a file has zero references (no entry in any directory, no open files), then it is deleted. – ctrl-alt-delor – 2018-06-07T10:05:53.790