SYMLINKS(8)							  SYMLINKS(8)



NAME
       symlinks - symbolic link maintenance utility

SYNOPSIS
       symlinks [ -cdrstv ] dirlist

DESCRIPTION
       symlinks is a useful utility for maintainers of FTP sites, CDROMs, and
       Linux software distributions.  It scans directories for symbolic links
       and  lists  them	 on  stdout,  often revealing flaws in the filesystem
       tree.

       Each link is output with a classification of relative, absolute,	 dan-
       gling, messy, lengthy, or other_fs.

       relative	 links are those expressed as paths relative to the directory
       in which the links reside, usually independent of the mount  point  of
       the filesystem.

       absolute	 links	are  those  given  as  an absolute path from the root
       directory as indicated by a leading slash (/).

       dangling links are those for which the target of	 the  link  does  not
       currently  exist.   This	 commonly  occurs  for	absolute links when a
       filesystem is mounted at other than its customary mount point (such as
       when  the normal root filesystem is mounted at /mnt after booting from
       alternative media).

       messy links are links which contain unnecessary slashes or dots in the
       path.  These are cleaned up as well when -c is specified.

       lengthy	links  are  links  which use "../" more than necessary in the
       path (eg.  /bin/vi -> ../bin/vim) These are only detected when  -s  is
       specified, and are only cleaned up when -c is also specified.

       other_fs are those links whose target currently resides on a different
       filesystem from where symlinks was run (most useful with -r ).


OPTIONS
       -c     convert absolute links (within the same filesystem) to relative
	      links.   This  permits links to maintain their validity regard-
	      less of the mount point used for the filesystem -- a  desirable
	      setup  in	 most cases.  This option also causes any messy links
	      to be cleaned up, and, if -s was also specified,	then  lengthy
	      links  are  also	shortened.  Links affected by -c are prefixed
	      with changed in the output.

       -d     causes dangling links to be removed.

       -r     recursively operate on subdirectories within the same  filesys-
	      tem.

       -s     causes lengthy links to be detected.

       -t     is  used	to  test for what symlinks would do if -c were speci-
	      fied, but without really changing anything.

       -v     show all symbolic links.	By default, relative  links  are  not
	      shown unless -v is specified.


BUGS
       symlinks does not recurse or change links across filesystems.


AUTHOR
       symlinks	 has  been written by Mark Lord , the developer
       and maintainer of the IDE Performance Package for linux.

SEE ALSO
       symlink(2)



Version 1.2			November 1994			  SYMLINKS(8)

UNIX/Linux commands referenced on this page:

1. link
2. links
3. as
4. which
5. mount
6. at
7. more
8. convert
9. less
10. setup
11. test