Re: OT: symlinks question

[Jan Willem Stumpel <jstumpel@planet.nl>]

Andrew J. Barr wrote:
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> On Thu, 31 May 2007 21:01:44 +0200
> Jan Willem Stumpel <jstumpel@planet.nl> wrote:
> 
>> Is there a single command to change the target of a symlink?
> 
> Try using the -f switch on ln.

Thanks! I had seen the -f switch in the ln man page, but hadn't
tried it because it says

  -f, --force
      remove existing destination files

I somehow thought from this that the file itself would be removed
(instead of just the destination part of the link).

The text in the man page should be read as:

     override the target part of an existing link,
     if it points to an ordinary file

.. because, sadly, and somewhat illogically, ln -sf does *not*
override an existing target if it is a directory! So for this case
it it back to "remove old link; create new link".

Regards, Jan