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I need a symlink that resolves relative to the directory it is placed in. What command is used to create such a thing?

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2 Answers

up vote 6 down vote

I've worked it out:

  1. Go to the directory you want the link to reside in
  2. run the command ln -s ../some/other/file linkname

To help in understanding: The path you provide is stored with the file. When you access the file the stored path is looked up and expanded relative to the file. It does not know what directory you were in when you created the link.

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No you don't. You just have to make sure that you specify the location relative to the link name instead of your current directory. – Ignacio Vazquez-Abrams May 28 '10 at 8:26
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To help in understanding: The path you provide is stored with the file. When you access the file the stored path is looked up and expanded relative to the file. It does not know what directory you were in when you created the link. – Marian May 30 '10 at 14:27
exactly equivalent: ln -s ../some/other/file /some/dir/linkname – sehe Dec 22 '11 at 12:07
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up vote 1 down vote

Relative links were tricky for me on OS X, i.e.

~/Dropbox/git/dave-bot $ ln -s ../codyhess/bin ~/bin
~/Dropbox/git/dave-bot $ ln -s ../codyhess/bin/ ~/bin

both did not work (something was created but it wasn't a directory). I created the desired link by using absolute paths.

~/Dropbox/git/dave-bot $ ln -s ~/Dropbox/git/codyhess/bin/ ~/bin
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It's a viable solution, so doesn't need to be a comment. This can stay as a separate answer. – slhck Oct 5 '11 at 20:43
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