What are circular symlinks in Unix-like systems used for? [closed]

Question

I was browsing a directory on a Linux machine, and when doing a detailed listing I noticed that a link is pointing to itself, for example:

somelink -> /path/to/directory/somelink

I am wondering what is the reason for doing such a thing?

Receipt

Answer 1

If the somelink is in /path/to/directory then this is an invalid symlink. If you try to access it, the filesystem will give you an error (probably something like too many levels of symbolic links*). It could have been a typo (or some other mistake) when it was created, or the symlink got moved somehow and ended up linking to itself.

Twoseater

Answer 2

There's no good reason for a circular symlink. Most probably, it was created by accident.

Montherlant

Thanks for confirming the answer – Receipt

@A.B There is a good reason to have a circular symlink. See may answer over here. – Danelle