On Monday 26 November 2001 21:10, Ben Rosenberg wrote:

* Erik Jakobsen (erik@urbakken.dk) [011126 11:55]: ->Hi. -> ->What does this mean: -> ->ln -s ../ ../etc ??.

ln = link

OK.

-s = softlink (shortcut of sorts)

And OK. But what means the ../ ../etc ??. Isn't it enough to write: ln -s /etc/ and so on ?.

-----=====-----=====-----=====-----=====----- Ben Rosenberg mailto:ben@whack.org -----=====-----=====-----=====-----=====----- "Technological progress is like an axe in the hands of a pathological criminal" -AE

-- Med venlig hilsen / Best regards / Vy73 de OZ4KK Erik Jakobsen - erik@urbakken.dk SuSE 7.3 Linux

Depends on what you want.

OK.

type cd ../

Ok, but cd .. does it too.

You should go up one dir.

So if you type ln -s ../ ../etc in /home/user

you'd actually be typing

ln -s /home /home/etc

Thank you Nick.

Nick

-- Med venlig hilsen / Best regards / Vy73 de OZ4KK Erik Jakobsen - erik@urbakken.dk SuSE 7.3 Linux

On Mon, 26 Nov 2001 12:35:32 -0800 (PST) Jim Cunning wrote:

On Mon, 26 Nov 2001, Ben Rosenberg wrote:

...

* Erik Jakobsen (erik@urbakken.dk) [011126 11:55]: ->Hi. -> ->What does this mean: -> ->ln -s ../ ../etc ??.

ln = link

-s = softlink (shortcut of sorts)

I may be wrong, but I think he might have been asking a deeper question. I had to test this to be certain what actually happens.

ln -s ../ ../etc creates a softlink called "etc" in the directory above the current one. The link points to the directory above the link itself, e.g.,

Dir A -- | Dir B -- etc --> ..// | Dir C

If Dir C is your current directory, then "ln -s ../ ../etc" will create "etc" in Dir B, pointing to Dir A. FYI, "ln -s .. ../etc" does the same thing, even though the link looks slightly different (../).

I was just going through the same process, and was about to ask Erik where he had come across this usage. So Erik, can you give us an example of where you have seen this please? Geoff _________________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Get your free @yahoo.com address at http://mail.yahoo.com

On Tue, 27 Nov 2001 06:16:46 +0100 Erik Jakobsen wrote:

On Monday 26 November 2001 21:55, Geoff wrote:

...

So Erik, can you give us an example of where you have seen this please?

Sure I can Geoff.

Its from the information from Vokler Kuhlmann for installing VMware Express on a system running 7.3:

3) Provide a missing symlink:

ln -s ../../etc/init.d/vmware /usr/sbin/rcvmware

This lets you start the vmware networking with rcvmware start/stop, like any other service.

http://volker.orcon.net.nz/linux/vmware/vmware2.0.4-SuSE7.3.txt

Hello Erik, Ahhh .. now I understand better ... unfortunately I also understand worse. I think that all of us who replied were assuming that the symlink was being made from ../ to ../etc. The full text you quote shows, of course, that this is not the case, and I can understand your question. Personally, I cannot see any need to use the form you quote and nor can I see any advantage that might flow from using it provided that vmware is in /etc/init.d. I do not use SuSE 7.3 and my vmware executable is not in that directory, so I cannot experiment. If I saw that kind of example in a text book I would assume that the ".../ ../" had been included to show that there might be direcories above /etc that might need to be taken into account, but that does not seem to be the explanation here. I am not an expert, however, and I would be very interested to know if any of the shell gurus on the list can explain why the command is expressed as it is. Sorry I can't help more. Regards, Geoff _________________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Get your free @yahoo.com address at http://mail.yahoo.com

On Tue, 27 Nov 2001 11:41:43 +0100 Erik Jakobsen wrote:

Hello Geoff.

Now I have tested the symbolic link,

test:/ # ln -s ../ ../etc/init.d/vmware /usr/sbin/rcvmware

ln: when making multiple links, last argument must be a directory test:/ #

I think you have put a space as follows ../ [space] ../etc/init.d/vmware /usr/sbin/rcvmware. I cannot be certain, but I do not think that space is in Vokler Kuhlmann's text. I think that the link will be created if you remove the space.

...

Personally, I cannot see any need to use the form you quote and nor can I see any advantage that might flow from using it provided that vmware is in /etc/init.d. I do not use SuSE 7.3 and my vmware executable is not in that directory, so I cannot experiment. If I saw that kind of example in a text book I would assume that the ".../ ../" had been included to show that there might be direcories above /etc that might need to be taken into account, but that does not seem to be the explanation here. I am not an expert, however, and I would be very interested to know if any of the shell gurus on the list can explain why the command is expressed as it is.

The reason should be a missing link given problems when running vmware-config.pl.

Yes, I understand why a symlink is needed. What I do not understand is why (if the executable vmware is in /etc/init.d/), the syntax you quote is used, rather than the simpler : ln -s /etc/init.d/vmware /usr/sbin/rcvmware Regards, Geoff _________________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Get your free @yahoo.com address at http://mail.yahoo.com

* Geoff [Tue, 27 Nov 2001 08:57:12 +0000]:

...

ln -s ../../etc/init.d/vmware /usr/sbin/rcvmware

This lets you start the vmware networking with rcvmware start/stop, like any other service.

Personally, I cannot see any need to use the form you quote and nor can I see any advantage that might flow from using it provided that vmware is in /etc/init.d.

/etc/init.d/vmware is the unit script that starts vmware. /usr/sbin/rcvmware is a handy symlink to ease running init scripts from the command line. In SuSE Linux all init scripts have such convenience symlinks. So if for instance you'd like to change the list of directories your NFS server exports, just edit /etc/exports and then call 'rcnfsserver reload'. Now to the way the symlink above is done: This creates a relative symlink. Remember that the relative path ../../etc/init.d/vmware does *not* get resolved to a absolute path but will be recorded verbatim in the symlink. Philipp -- Penguins to save the dinosaurs -- Handelsblatt on Linux for S/390

Perhaps we need to use the expression "&c" when we mean et cetera, since the Unix directory etc is a confusion factor. I know (think) you pronounce etc as "etsee" but what is it supposed to mean? --doug At 12:35 11/26/2001 -0800, Jim Cunning wrote:

On Mon, 26 Nov 2001, Ben Rosenberg wrote:

...

* Erik Jakobsen (erik@urbakken.dk) [011126 11:55]: ->Hi. -> ->What does this mean: -> ->ln -s ../ ../etc ??.

ln = link

-s = softlink (shortcut of sorts)

I may be wrong, but I think he might have been asking a deeper question. I had to test this to be certain what actually happens.

ln -s ../ ../etc creates a softlink called "etc" in the directory above the current one. The link points to the directory above the link itself, e.g.,

Dir A -- | Dir B -- etc --> ..// | Dir C

If Dir C is your current directory, then "ln -s ../ ../etc" will create "etc" in Dir B, pointing to Dir A. FYI, "ln -s .. ../etc" does the same thing, even though the link looks slightly different (../).

Jim Cunning

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On Monday 26 November 2001 21:24, Geoff wrote:

On Mon, 26 Nov 2001 20:53:49 +0100

Erik Jakobsen wrote:

...

Hi.

What does this mean:

ln -s ../ ../etc ??.

It is the command used to create a "symbolic link" - usually known as a "symlink" or "soft link".

Imagine that there is a file in Bill Gates' home directory called /home/billgates/linus and Bill wants to make that file available in another directory /ms/nemesis. He can use the command ln -s /home/billgates/linus /ms/nemesis. A listing of the directory /ms/nemesis will now show that it contains a file called linus. However the file has not been duplicated into the /ms/nemesis directory (thereby using up disk space). The linus entry is just a kind of pointer to the file /home/billgates/linus.

Thank you Geoff, but what does the ../ ../ means ??. Wouldn't it not be ok just to write: ln -s /etc/ whatever comes ?.

Geoff.

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-- Med venlig hilsen / Best regards / Vy73 de OZ4KK Erik Jakobsen - erik@urbakken.dk SuSE 7.3 Linux

On Mon, 26 Nov 2001 16:15:58 -0700 "Glenn Williams" wrote:

Geoff:

The example you used to illustrate you explanation of a symlink is fine art! I love it!

Regards,

:-) Thanks. Geoff _________________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Get your free @yahoo.com address at http://mail.yahoo.com