Subj : Re: help with bash prog and links
To   : comp.os.linux
From : Vilmos Soti
Date : Thu Sep 09 2004 04:13 pm

"JV" <jveil.hotpop@com> writes:

> in trying to make a bash program  that can evaluate a symbolic link and act
> accordingly
> psuedo code follows
> 
> if  ./lnk = softlink(targ1) {
>     rm ./lnk
>     ln -s ./targ2 ./lnk
>     echo "lnk = targ2"
> elif ./lnk == softlink(targ2) {
>     rm ./lnk
>     ln -s ./targ1 ./lnk
>     echo "lnk = targ1"
> fi

What do you try to accomplish?

What is targ1? And what is ./lnk's relationship to targ1?
Also, what does softlink() do? It returns true if the argument is a symlink?

Are you trying to do something that ./lnk points to one target,
and you want to point it to the another one? Like a a toggle?

Anyways, to read the target of a symlink, use the "readlink" program.

Here is a code (not tested) what might do what you want.

[ ! -L lnk ] && return                     # returns unless symlink
target=$(readlink lnk)                     # get link's target to $target
if [ "$target" = "targ1" ]; then           # obvious from here
        rm lnk
        ln -s targ2 lnk
    elif [ "$target" = "targ2" ]; then
        rm lnk
        ln -s targ1 lnk
fi

Vilmos

.