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What/How to check before deleting files and directories

 
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Top Forums UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers What/How to check before deleting files and directories
# 1  
Old 07-27-2005
What/How to check before deleting files and directories
Hi there,
I have a some directories containing web files that are old, and I need to remove them. I know that there might be sym links and hyperlinks pointing to these old directories. If that's the case, then I'll have to fix the links before deleting these old directories to avoid broken links.

So the question is, how do I check to make sure that no links or files are referencing the directories that I want to delete?

Thanks in advance for all your tips and advice!
# 2  
Old 07-27-2005
Almost impossible.

There are 2 types of links.

One will give you a indication that its a link by seeing the end of ls -l
a -> b
The other one will have same inode no.
For this you will have to search the filesystem to see if any other file has the same inode no. or not.
# 3  
Old 07-27-2005
Check out man symlinks.

You can clean up the dangling links with symlinks -r -d dir post deletion.

Vino
# 4  
Old 07-29-2005
try echo comand
# 5  
Old 07-29-2005
you can use
symlinks -vr /dir/to/check | grep /dir/to/delete
to check directory /dir/to/check for symbolic links to some file under /dir/to/delete.
 
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