Paul Pianta wrote:
On Fri, 2004-11-26 at 01:52 -0500, William M. Quarles wrote:
Hi,
I keep having this problem with symbolic links to directories on my
computer. Once they are set up, if I try to remove them, this paradox
occurs:
[root@resistance plugins]# rm ns7/quarlewm/
rm: remove directory `ns7/quarlewm/'? y
rm: cannot remove directory `ns7/quarlewm/': Is a directory
[root@resistance plugins]# rm -Rf ns7/quarlewm/
rm: cannot remove `ns7/quarlewm/': Not a directory
[root@resistance plugins]#
I also cannot place force a different symbolic link in it's place, as it
just places the new link inside of the "directory."
Does anyone know what the underlying problem is, and any possible ways
of solving it or circumventing it?
Ouch - I got bitten by this once upon a time and feel great that I can
help someone else out with it.
The secret is ... don't use the / at the end of the directory in your rm
command.
When you use bash auto-complete with the 'tab' key it will add the / and
this is what is messing you up. To remove a symbolic link to a directory
you need to remove just the name - eg. 'rm quarlewm' and not 'rm
quarlewm/'
HTH
pantz
Thanks pantz!
William
