I had a little script that would remove broken links. I used to do it
like this:
if ! stat -L $link > /dev/null; then rm $link; fi
But recently (some time in February according to the CVS records) stat
was changed so that stat -L would use lstat(2) if the link is broken.
So I had to change it to
if stat -L $link | awk '{print $3}' | grep l > /dev/null;
then rm $link; fi
but it is a lot less elegant.
What is the proper accepted way to remove broken links?
Stephen
On Mon, 28 Feb 2011 12:15, stephen@ wrote:> I had a little script that would remove broken links. I used to do it like > this: > > if ! stat -L $link > /dev/null; then rm $link; fi > > But recently (some time in February according to the CVS records) stat was > changed so that stat -L would use lstat(2) if the link is broken. > > So I had to change it to > > if stat -L $link | awk '{print $3}' | grep l > /dev/null; > then rm $link; fi > > but it is a lot less elegant. > > What is the proper accepted way to remove broken links? > > Stephen >You might find sysutils/symlinks interesting. I have been using it a long time and have not had to consider adjusting much in the way of shell scripting to remove dirty links. -c == change absolute/messy links to relative -d == delete dangling links -o == warn about links across file systems -r == recurse into subdirs -s == shorten lengthy links -t == show what would be done by -c -v == verbose (show all symlinks) Quite interesting though how such a little tweak has caused a massive expansion of your command line and required utils. Good luck, -- jhell
On Mon, Feb 28, 2011 at 11:15:39AM -0600, Stephen Montgomery-Smith wrote:> I had a little script that would remove broken links. I used to do > it like this: > > if ! stat -L $link > /dev/null; then rm $link; fi > > But recently (some time in February according to the CVS records) > stat was changed so that stat -L would use lstat(2) if the link is > broken. > > So I had to change it to > > if stat -L $link | awk '{print $3}' | grep l > /dev/null; > then rm $link; fi > > but it is a lot less elegant. > > What is the proper accepted way to remove broken links?If your complaint is the literal length of the line, you should be able to change your one-liner to: if stat -L -f %Sp $link | grep l > /dev/null; then rm $link; fi Though I agree this is less elegant. Unrelated (but worth noting), be aware your one-liner will break horribly with files that contains spaces; use "$link" instead. Possibly you could use the example from the find(1) man page: find -L /usr/ports/packages -type l -exec rm -- {} + Delete all broken symbolic links in /usr/ports/packages. (Note that the "+" on the end is not a typo, see the man page) Otherwise, possibly someone should add a flag to stat(1) that inhibits falling back on lstat(2). -- | Jeremy Chadwick jdc@parodius.com | | Parodius Networking http://www.parodius.com/ | | UNIX Systems Administrator Mountain View, CA, USA | | Making life hard for others since 1977. PGP 4BD6C0CB |
Jeremy Chadwick wrote:> Possibly you could use the example from the find(1) man page: > > find -L /usr/ports/packages -type l -exec rm -- {} + > Delete all broken symbolic links in /usr/ports/packages. > > (Note that the "+" on the end is not a typo, see the man page)Brilliant! Since this is *precisely* the purpose of my script, I think I will use this code instead,
On Mon, Feb 28, 2011 at 11:15:39AM -0600, Stephen Montgomery-Smith wrote:> I had a little script that would remove broken links. I used to do it > like this:> if ! stat -L $link > /dev/null; then rm $link; fi> But recently (some time in February according to the CVS records) stat > was changed so that stat -L would use lstat(2) if the link is broken.> So I had to change it to> if stat -L $link | awk '{print $3}' | grep l > /dev/null; > then rm $link; fi> but it is a lot less elegant.> What is the proper accepted way to remove broken links?A better answer to your original question was already given, but for that command, isn't it sufficient to do if ! [ -e $link ]; then rm $link; fi All test(1)'s primaries that test things about files follow symlinks, except for -h/-L. -- Jilles Tjoelker