How to update a symbolic link target (ln -f -s not working)

symbolic-link

I'm using

ln -f -s
/var/www/html/releases/build1390
app-current

to update symbolic link "app-current" with a new destination.
However, this doesn't work, the link "app-current" keeps it original destination, however, I don't get any errors…

I'd rather not remove the link and recreate it, just update the target of an existing link. Is that possible?

Best Answer

That works for me, what is the output of strace ln -f -s /var/www/html/releases/build1390 app-current ?

Oh, since it is a directory you need to add -n for no dereference and this should solve the issue. -f is really more of a convenience since adding the -f just causes it to unlink anyways. Although I guess it would probably happen a few hundred ms faster on a normally loaded system.

For example, if arf already points to /home:

strace With -n:

strace ln -n -f -s / arf
...
symlink("/", "arf")           = -1 EEXIST (File exists)
unlink("arf")                           = 0
symlink("/", "arf")           = 0

strace Without -n:

strace ln -f -s / arf
...
write(2, "ln: "..., 4ln: )                  = 4
write(2, "`arf/': cannot overwrite director"..., 34`arf/': cannot overwrite directory) = 34
write(2, "\n"..., 1)                    = 1

So without the -n arf gets dereferenced so ln treats it as arf as if it were actually /. In your particular example, if there is no error, I think you have probably created a new symbolic link inside of /var/www/html/releases/build1390 app-current and will want to clean that up.

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