1

New to this forum.

Currently, have I configured myself a little media server using Ubuntu Server 64bit, version 16.04. It runs Plex, Samba, Deluge, SSH, and some custom scripts. It takes a bit of time everytime I need to change something in the config file and was wondering so if it would be a wise decision to create a folder, that would contain all the config files using symbolic links.

Improve this question
1
  • I wonder if this is an XY problem. Could you give us an example of the problem and the steps you have to go through to solve it? Maybe there is a different answer than creating a symbolic link.
    – WinEunuuchs2Unix
    Oct 9, 2018 at 23:47

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
1

Yes.

This is exactly the reasoning behind symbolic links (as opposed to hard links). This way you can leave the original where the software expects and symbolically refer to it by another location for your convenience.

There is an added benefit if you symbolically link files (as opposed to folders). If you delete the symbolic link by mistake, then you won't accidentally delete the original, since it's just a link.

However, it won't protect you from accidental changes and you will have to respect the permissions of the target files - meaning you will still have to sudo most of the time.

In your case, I would create a folder, for example, called ~/config and then link each individual file you refer to commonly in there. Things become more complex/dangerous if you symbolically link folders. For example:

  • rm /symbolic/link/to/file will just delete the link and not the file, whereas
  • rm /symbolic/link/to/folder/file will still delete the target file if /symoblic/link/to/folder is a symbolic link to the folder containing file.

Always keep backups!

Improve this answer

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .