Create a symbolic link of directory in Ubuntu [closed]

Question

Below is my code for creating a symlink of a directory:

sudo ln -s /usr/local/nginx/conf/ /etc/nginx

I already created the directory /etc/nginx. I just want the contents of the source directory (/usr/local/nginx/conf/) to be in the contents of the target directory (/etc/nginx). But when I execute the code, /etc/nginx contains a directory called conf, instead of the contents of conf. That directory contains the contents I want, but in the wrong location.

Why did it put a directory in the target folder, instead of just putting the contents of the directory in the target folder?

Biogeochemistry

You can also use Files (default file browser). Right click on the folder you want to link > "Make Link" option. It will create linked folder which you can move and rename as you need. – Aubine

Use linux bind mount feature. example – Solarize

Answer 1

This is the behavior of ln if the second arg is a directory. It places a link to the first arg inside it. If you want /etc/nginx to be the symlink, you should remove that directory first and run that same command.

Upsilon

related: unix.stackexchange.com/questions/84175/weird-behavior-of-gnu-ln – Addam

That Unix.SE link resolves back here. Seems we got a circular dependency. – Overheat

Answer 2

That's what ln is documented to do when the target already exists and is a directory. If you want /etc/nginx to be a symlink rather than contain a symlink, you had better not create it as a directory first!

Ramirez

Your answer only makes sense in the context of the reader already knowing the answer. It is useless to anyone who would ask the question – Bioluminescence

Can I actually create a symlink to a root of a mounted USB device (thus I cannot erase this folder first)? – Foiled

@GrigoryKornilov you can create a symlink to anything you want, including something that doesn't exist. This question was rather about the place where the symlink is created (not where it points to). A particular pathname in the filesystem is either a regular file or it is a directory or it is a symlink (or it is a socket or pipe or device). It cannot be more than one of those things at the same time (i.e. you cannot have more than one distinct file with the exact same name). – Ramirez

Answer 3

In script is useful something like this:

if [ ! -d /etc/nginx ]; then ln -s /usr/local/nginx/conf/ /etc/nginx > /dev/null 2>&1; fi

it prevents before re-create "bad" looped symlink after re-run script

Lurk

Excellent! This is the exact solution. no need to create the directory if it already existing. It's a real good tweak to hard link and sink it in the blackhole(/dev/null) – Too