Symbolic link problem

[Paul Pianta]

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 at resistance plugins]# rm ns7/quarlewm/
> rm: remove directory `ns7/quarlewm/'? y
> rm: cannot remove directory `ns7/quarlewm/': Is a directory
> [root at resistance plugins]# rm -Rf ns7/quarlewm/
> rm: cannot remove `ns7/quarlewm/': Not a directory
> [root at 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