UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

Hi all,

I have scoured the entire forum for this but to no avail unfortunately. Basically, I would like to remove my symbolic link from my folder name i.e.

foldername -> /a/b/c/d/f

where f is indeed a folder. I have tried rmdir but this does not work and in actual fact deletes the actual folder! i.e. rmdir /a/b/c/d/f

Also I would like to change the foldername owner and so I have used the following command:

chown -h -R userid:group foldername but still does not work

Can anyone help??

Thanks

CF

A symlink is deleted like any other file regardless of what it points to. All you should have to do is:

Code:

# rm filename

If foldername is a symlink, changing ownership of it isn't going to do anything. You need to change ownership of the file or directory the symbolic link points to.

Or you may use:

Code:

$ unlink filename

to remove the symbolic link.

Hi,

I have tried rm foldername but it just deletes it and also the unlink command is not installed on my machine because it says: /usr/bin/ksh: unlink: not found

Any other options?

You do the rm on the symbolic link. I would also make sure you don't have any aliases for rm that will follow the link. To do this simply execute the command unalias rm.