Symbolic links - move files

Question

How can I change symbolic links for targeted files? (move targeted files to place where are linked from)

I hope I'm clear.

Thank you in advance.

I can write a script to make it automatic, but is there any command? I need reverse of ln - change link to target by copying target to symlink file.

janos · Answer 1 · 2012-04-24 09:25:40Z

If it's not in man ln, then ln definitely cannot do it.

But this should:

find /path/to/dir -type l -exec sh -c 'cp --remove-destination "$(readlink "{}")" "{}"' \;

The quotes are to take care of file names with spaces in them.

The -exec calling into sh is to evaluate $(readlink ...) for each file.

1 Answer