Re: symbolic links
On Mon, Nov 26, 2001 at 09:39:33AM -0800, Mike Egglestone wrote:
> .....Apr 1 2001 mail -> ../mail
>
> My question:
> I'm guessing that the file "mail" is linked to here: /var/mail
> but the above output doesn't tell me that.
Yes it does. It tells you that, if you're in /var/spool, 'mail' and
'../mail' both refer to the same file or directory.
> If I wanted to find out where "mail" pointed to, how would I find out?
cd /var/spool/../mail (or, since .. moves you up a level, you can think
of it as cancelling the immediately preceding directory, which produces
the equivalent path '/var/mail')
> Its only telling me part of the link.
No, it's telling you the whole link. That particular link just
happens to be a link to a relative path (../mail) instead of to an
absolute path (/var/mail).
> Same goes for the files in here:
> /etc/rc2.d/
> I know they all point to /etc/init.d/*
> but the output from ls -l doesn't exactly tell me that.
> For someone new, how could they find out?
There again, it is telling you, just not in a terribly straightforward
fashion. Just remember that /etc/rc2.d/../init.d/ is the same as
/etc/init.d/
--
When we reduce our own liberties to stop terrorism, the terrorists
have already won. - reverius
Innocence is no protection when governments go bad. - Tom Swiss
Reply to: