Re: Problems with ln -s

[Bob Proulx]

> When I type ln -s Tesfile Targetfile
> there are times when I get the resultant Targefile in red. When ever
> this happens I have problems when there are applications that rely on
> the Targetfile. When I get the Targetfile in some other color orange,
> green blue etc then I  do not have the above problems.
> 
> My main problem though is trying to find the cause of the failure of the
> ln -s process. In all cases I will be logged in as root, but still I at
> times have this problem of failure to ln -s.  As it is I am having
> problems with this ln -s command which is whta prompted me to mail  you.
> If you want any other information  please do request. I am  using Redhat
> 6.2

The choice of color output and the choice of particular color maps is
purely personal preference.  Therefore your remarks about red or blue
colors really means very little.  And not knowing the details makes it
impossible to say anything about your problem.  Please ignore the
colors and use the real details of the files from 'ls -ld' output.

If possible create a small example that illustrates your problem and
send it back to the mailing list.  Include the --version output of ln
as the GNU programs are used by many operating systems and it is
impossible to keep track of them all.  Something like the following.
This is normal output.  I am only using this as an example.

  ln --version
  ln (fileutils) 4.1
  cd /tmp
  rm -f foo
  ls -ld foo
  ls: foo: No such file or directory
  ln -s bar foo
  ls -ld foo
  lrwxrwxrwx    1 bob      bob             3 Mar  6 23:06 foo -> bar
  ln -s bar foo
  ln: `foo': File exists

Bob