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I have a file system where one or more symlinks exist to a file. Is there a way to go thru each file and determine where all the symlinks that point to it on the file system are?

OS is Ubuntu 9.10 Linux

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Operating system? – DaveParillo Apr 21 '10 at 3:55
linux - ubuntu 9.10 to be exact – Roy Rico Apr 22 '10 at 15:41
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You can use good old find with the -lname switch:

find / -lname '/path/to/linked/file' 2> /dev/null

For a more intricate approach, you can use the inode number of the file (retrieve from ls -i <file>):

find / -follow -inum 123456 2> /dev/null
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this has the limitation that it only matches a symlink with that exact filename (or pattern). it wouldn't catch a symlink to a symlink to that file. (so if symB points to fileA and symC points to symB, and you run this command looking for fileA, it'll find symB but not symC.) – quack quixote Apr 21 '10 at 4:05
True, but I'm just following the criteria he's given us. – John T Apr 21 '10 at 4:07
just sayin'. nice addition tho. :) – quack quixote Apr 21 '10 at 4:19
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