On 07/14/2016 04:57 AM, Eric Gallager wrote:
On 7/13/16, Jeff Law <l...@redhat.com> wrote:
On 06/27/2016 08:10 PM, Eric Gallager wrote:
The last time I ran ./contrib/download_prerequisites, I already had
previous symlinks set up from a previous run of the script, so `ln`
followed the existing symlinks and created the new ones in the
directories to which the symlinks pointed. This patch should fix that
by removing the old symlinks before creating new ones. (For some
reason the `-f` flag to `ln` that was already there wasn't enough for
me.) Tested by running the script and ensuring that the new isl
symlink pointed to the correct directory, and that there were no bad
symlinks in the old isl directory. Could someone commit this trivial
patch for me, or something like it? I don't have write access.
I'd really rather know why the "-f" flag didn't work for you. The whole
point of -f is to remove the destination file first.
Jeff
Reading my ln manpage, it describes the "-f" flag like this:
-f If the target file already exists, then unlink it so that the
link may occur. (The -f option overrides any previous -i
options.)
Okay, so that seems like it should do what you say, but the manpage
also describes a separate uppercase "-F" option:
-F If the target file already exists and is a directory, then
remove it so that the link may occur. The -F option should be
used with either -f or -i options. If none is specified, -f is
implied. The -F option is a no-op unless -s option is speci-
fied.
So it seems to imply that "-f" will only remove the destination file
if it's a regular file, while "-F" is needed if the destination file
is a directory. The page also has this to say about "-F" later:
The -F option is FreeBSD extention and should not be used in portable
scripts.
So this could be a BSD vs. GNU thing.
I don't have any BSD systems running. I can confirm that while "-f"
refers to files in the man page, it will happy delete the old symlink as
well.
-bash-4.3$ ln -s /bin/ls jj
-bash-4.3$ ln -s -f /bin/bash jj
-bash-4.3$ ls -l jj
lrwxrwxrwx. 1 law law 9 Jul 14 13:22 jj -> /bin/bash
-bash-4.3$ which ln
/usr/bin/ln
-bash-4.3$ rpm -q --whatprovides /usr/bin/ln
coreutils-8.24-6.fc23.x86_64
Could you test this on your system?
Jeff
