Why is my link broken? Bash

Question

I am trying to link files in a while loop for my script but just the simple linking code itself creates a broken link.

The directory structure is this:

main/working/script.sh main/working/dir main/shared/default/some_files

My script has this code:

ln -s ../shared/default/* dir

This creates broken link. I can make the link not broken if I go inside the directory of main/working/dir and use ln -s ../../shared/default/* .

Community · Accepted Answer · 2017-05-23 11:52:20Z

1

That is because you link to a relative path; Inside your script go to main/working/:

cd main/working/ ln -s ../shared/default/* dir

either use the absolute path:

ln -s /absolute/path/to/shared/default/* dir

DIR=$( cd "$( dirname "${BASH_SOURCE[0]}" )" && pwd ) ln -s $DIR/../../shared/default/* dir

edit: bash cannot expand the * if you are not at the right directory, so you can work around that to temporarily change directories:

# go to dir to make correct relative links cd dir ln -s $DIR/../../shared/default/* ./ cd ..

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answered Jul 1, 2015 at 8:11

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7 Comments

is there another way on linking it without using the absolute path?

I gave you three possibilities; the first is relative, second absolute, third is a mix of both: relative to the place where your script is located...

The first option you gave was the code I used and it gives broken links. The third option though is too long.

your link is broken because you are not located in the correct directory; that's why you need to go to your working directory

remark the line just before the one you used: cd main/working (note that you could use an absolute directory too here: cd /path/to/main/working

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