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Vinay
Asked: 2010-11-16 04:59:50 +0800 CST

How to delete or replace an already created symbolic link?

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I am working on my project using network simulator2. I installed it and everything is fine. I attempted to create a symbolic link between this installation and /usr/bin, so I could invoke the software by running ns from the command-line. Namely, I ran:

sudo ln -s /home/vinaychalluru/ns-allinone-2.34/ns-2.34/ns /usr/bin/ns

which generated the following output:

ln: creating symbolic link '/usr/bin/ns': File exists

How can I delete the already created symlink or can I replace it with any other commands?

software-installation package-management command-line

4 Answers

  1. ln has -f switch that 'forces' a symlink to be created whether it exists or not.

    sudo ln -sf /home/vinaychalluru/ns-allinone-2.34/ns-2.34/ns /usr/bin/ns
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  2. Best Answer
    sudo rm -r /usr/bin/ns

sudo ln -s /home/vinaychalluru/ns-allinone-2.34/ns-2.34/ns /usr/bin/ns
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  3. I tried ln -sf while replacing but it didn't work for me, but doing ln -sfn directory link_name as root worked.

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  4. To add to all answers above, a symbolic link can be treated as a regular file in many cases (the link, not the target).

    rm on a symbolic link will remove it. If the link is owned by root, you will need to sudo.

    You should be able to rm /usr/bin/ns or rather sudo rm /usr/bin/ns don't forget ownership.

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