Cannot create symlink from /var/tmp to /tmp. Cannot delete /var/tmp – CentOS 7

centos7rhel7tmp

I cannot delete /var/tmp as it says,

#  rm -Rf /var/tmp
rm: cannot remove ‘/var/tmp’: Device or resource busy

Because of this, I cannot create a symbolic link from /var/tmp to /tmp.

How can I achieve this ?

Output of df

| Filesystem | 1K-blocks | Used    | Available | Use% | Mounted        |
|------------|:---------:|---------|-----------|------|----------------|
| /dev/sda1  | 31443968  | 1693220 | 29750748  | 6%   | /              |
| devtmpfs   | 862096    | 0       | 862096    | 0%   | /dev           |
| tmpfs      | 868712    | 0       | 868712    | 0%   | /dev/shm       |
| tmpfs      | 868712    | 8408    | 860304    | 1%   | /run           |
| tmpfs      | 868712    | 0       | 868712    | 0%   | /sys/fs/cgroup | 
| tmpfs      | 173744    | 0       | 173744    | 0%   | /run/user/1000 |
| /dev/loop0 | 3871532   | 15624   | 3639524   | 1%   | /tmp           |

Output of mount

sysfs on /sys type sysfs (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,seclabel)
proc on /proc type proc (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime) devtmpfs on
/dev type devtmpfs (rw,nosuid,seclabel,size=862096k,nr_inodes=215524
,mode=755) securityfs on /sys/kernel/security type securityfs
(rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relat
ime) tmpfs on /dev/shm type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,nodev,seclabel) devpts on
/dev/pts type devpts (rw,nosuid,noexec,relatime,seclabel,gid=5,mode=62
0,ptmxmode=000) tmpfs on /run type tmpfs
(rw,nosuid,nodev,seclabel,mode=755) tmpfs on /sys/fs/cgroup type tmpfs
(ro,nosuid,nodev,noexec,seclabel,mode=755) cgroup on
/sys/fs/cgroup/systemd type cgroup (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,xa
ttr,release_agent=/usr/lib/systemd/systemd-cgroups-agent,name=systemd)
pstore on /sys/fs/pstore type pstore (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime)
cgroup on /sys/fs/cgroup/blkio type cgroup
(rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,blki
o) cgroup on /sys/fs/cgroup/cpuset type cgroup
(rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,cpu
set) cgroup on /sys/fs/cgroup/cpu,cpuacct type cgroup
(rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatim
e,cpuacct,cpu) cgroup on /sys/fs/cgroup/memory type cgroup
(rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,mem
ory) cgroup on /sys/fs/cgroup/devices type cgroup
(rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,de
vices) cgroup on /sys/fs/cgroup/hugetlb type cgroup
(rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,hu
getlb) cgroup on /sys/fs/cgroup/net_cls,net_prio type cgroup
(rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,re
latime,net_prio,net_cls) cgroup on /sys/fs/cgroup/perf_event type
cgroup (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime
,perf_event) cgroup on /sys/fs/cgroup/pids type cgroup
(rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,pids) cgroup on
/sys/fs/cgroup/freezer type cgroup (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,fr
eezer) configfs on /sys/kernel/config type configfs (rw,relatime)
/dev/sda1 on / type xfs (rw,relatime,seclabel,attr2,inode64,noquota)
selinuxfs on /sys/fs/selinux type selinuxfs (rw,relatime) systemd-1 on
/proc/sys/fs/binfmt_misc type autofs (rw,relatime,fd=29,pgrp=1,time
out=300,minproto=5,maxproto=5,direct) hugetlbfs on /dev/hugepages type
hugetlbfs (rw,relatime,seclabel) mqueue on /dev/mqueue type mqueue
(rw,relatime,seclabel) debugfs on /sys/kernel/debug type debugfs
(rw,relatime) /home/mntTmp on /tmp type ext4
(rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,seclabel,data=or
dered) tmpfs on /run/user/0 type tmpfs
(rw,nosuid,nodev,relatime,seclabel,size=173744k,
mode=700) tmpfs on /run/user/1000 type tmpfs
(rw,nosuid,nodev,relatime,seclabel,size=17374
4k,mode=700,uid=1000,gid=1001)

Best Answer

Based on the output provided, /var/tmp is mounted under / (root) filesystem. /tmp filesystem is your swap. Not sure why you need to symlink swap to /var/tmp.