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itsadok
Asked: 2009-05-15 00:08:21 +0800 CST

Move a file and leave a soft link behind

  • 772

I'm looking for a single linux command that allows me to do the equivalent of this:

cp /some/path/file /another/path/ && ln -sf /another/path/file /some/path/

If there isn't one, what's the best way to do this for a bunch of files?

linux command-line-interface symlink

3 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    A small note, is that you could use ln both times to make the command not actually move the data (assuming both paths are on the same filesystem).

    ln /some/path/file /another/path/ && ln -sf /another/path/file /some/path/

    But I assume that you want to move the content of /some/path/ to an other disk, and then create links to the new files so "no one" notices.

    for f in `ls /some/path/`; do ln /some/path/$f /another/path/ && ln -sf /another/path/$f /some/path; done

    Wrapping it in a bash function:

    function cpln {
    for f in `ls $1`
    do
        ln $1/$f $2 && ln -sf $2/$f $1
    done
}
    • 7

  2. Theres my script you could use (takes two parameters /some/path/file and /another/path/ ):

    #!/bin/bash
cp $1 $2
if [ "$?" -ne "0" ]; then
    echo "Some error"
    exit 1
    fi
ln -sf $2/${1##*/} ${1%/*}
    • 2

  3. Seriously, I thought this was a really easy question.

    Here's what I can do in perl:

    #!/bin/perl
# Usage: cpln TARGETDIR SOURCE...
# Example: find tree/ -type f | xargs cpln commands/

$target = shift;

foreach(@ARGV) {
    m[(.*)/([^/]+)];
    system("cp $_ $target");
    system("ln -sf $target/$2 $1/");
}

    I was hoping for something more elegant, but I guess I'll use that.

    • 1