On 09Mar2005 16:39, bruce <bedouglas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: | i have a question regarding symlinks. i have my system partitioned | | /dev/hda5 100 / | /dev/hda1 10000 /home | /dev/hda2 30000 /usr | | is it possible to create a symlink that would allow '/' to point to | /usr/root. i'm inclined to think you can't but i'm not knowledgeable about | the concept of symlinks within linux.... You can't. You could perhaps go the other way depending what you wanted to achieve and why, and how hard you want to work. A symlink is a normal filesystem object, like a file or a directory etc, in that such an object must _be_ something. So you can't make a symlink for / because / must be a directory. | would you have to copy the dir structure under '/' to the symlink. and | wouldn't this cause a recursive issue/situation?? A symlink just points somewhere. You'd move the directory contents to that somewhere. Example: mkdir foo echo 1 >foo/1 echo 2 >foo/2 makes a directory "foo" with some stuff in it. Supposing you actually wanted it at "bah" and wanted a symlink at foo (eg to support scripts that might know the old "foo" name), you'd go: mv foo bah ln -s bah foo That moved foo sideways to bah, and then makes a symlink named "foo" that points at "bah". / is special - it's got to be a directory, being at the top of the filesystem; there's nowhere to put the symlink; consider that the symlink above for "foo" is in fact stored in the directory containing "foo" - there is no directory "containing" "/". Does this clarify things at all? -- Cameron Simpson <cs@xxxxxxxxxx> DoD#743 http://www.cskk.ezoshosting.com/cs/ If I can make a dress out of a chicken feed sack, I can make a man out of you. - another great country music lyric
