Symbolic link problem

[William M. Quarles]

Paul Pianta wrote:
> 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
> 

Thanks pantz!

William