Home / ubuntu / Questions / 533021
In Process
Cam Jones
Asked: 2014-10-07 14:30:17 +0800 CST

"chmod: cannot operate on dangling symlink '/etc/transmission-daemon/settings.json"

  • 772

I am trying to install transmission on my Ubuntu 14.04 server and I am unsure whether to skip this part or not. I am trying to give permissions to a folder with

sudo chmod -R 770 /etc/transmission-daemon/settings.json

but the output is

chmod: cannot operate on dangling symlink '/etc/transmission-daemon/settings.json

Am I doing something wrong or should I just skip this part or what?

I am following instructions from here: Install Transmission with web interface on Ubuntu, and I am at the end of step 5.

Update: Output of ls -l /etc/transmission-daemon/settings.json:

lrwxrwxrwx 1 root debian-transmission 51 Oct 6 18:12 /etc/transmission-daemon/settings.json -> /home/cam/.config/transmission-daemon/settings.json

I guess the file doesn't exist because when I run cd /home/cam/.config/transmission-daemon, then run dir, nothing shows up.

14.04

4 Answers

  1. I fixed my dangling symlink error by using the full path, as this site suggests: https://www.howtofixthis.com/categories/linux/chmod-cannot-operate-on-dangling-symlink

    So I did:

    ln -s `pwd`/[executable] executable.bin

    where the backticks (`) indicate command substitution

    • 4

  2. I had the same error but I created the symlink with the root user and tried to chmod with another user. Make sure you use the same user for both actions...

    • 1

  3. I believe you may have missed or been in the wrong directory when issuing the command below while following the poorly written tutorial.

    sudo cp -a /etc/transmission-daemon/settings.json transmission-daemon/

    If you didn't already remove the original you can resolve the problem by retracing your steps and reissuing the command after cd /home/user/.config/

    If the file no longer exists you should re-install as suggested by Warpigs answer

    • 0

  4. Try this 

    sudo apt-get --purge autoremove transmission-cli transmission-common transmission-daemon

    and then...

    sudo apt-get install transmission-cli transmission-common transmission-daemon

    go to /etc/transmission-daemon/ and check if setting.json is back.

    • -2