Is there a way to edit a symlink without deleting it first? [duplicate]

Question

So I created a symlink:

ln -s /location/to/link linkname 

Now I want to change the location that the symlink links to. How do I do that? is there a way to do it without deleting it first?

Answer 1

You could create the new link with a different name, then move it to replace the old link.

ln -s /location/to/link linkname 

Later

ln -s /location/to/link2 newlink mv newlink linkname 

If newlink and linkname are on the same physical device the mv should be atomic.

Answer 2

Try ln -sf new_destination linkname.