Symlink generates empty alias file?

Question

I'm trying to create a folder that is going to contain all files that are in another folder.

This is the tree structure. I want to symlink source to target.

.
├── source-folder
    └── source <-- source folder
└── controllers
    └── another-folder
        └── yet-another-folder
            └── target <-- target folder

I tried

ln -s source-folder/source controllers/another-folder/yet-another-folder/target

but it only creates an empty alias file.

How do I create a folder that contains the same data that is in the source-folder/source folder?

Sarre

You need to specify a full path for the source folder not a relative one. – Bicameral

Answer 1

I solved it by placing myself in yet-another-folder and doing;

ln -s ../../../source-folder/source target

So I'm placed in the target's parent folder and the specified source path is relative to where I'm placed.

Sarre

Don't you need another level of .. there? You need to go up 3 levels before you can come down to source-folder. – Apothecium

@Apothecium You are correct. My example tree wasn't the same as my real tree so that's why :). – Sarre

Is a great workaround, I did ln -s node_modules node_modules2 and then mv node_modules2 public`. It worked well but the answer from @Postorbital bellow seems to be more technically accurated. – Wappes

Answer 2

Better to create symlinks with full paths; it then works as expected

Postorbital

technically not required, BUT chances are you'll lose more time figuring out a wrong relative path - compared to the amount of time typing a full path. generally speaking, using full path rather than relative path is more robust (IMHO) – Postorbital