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Safe way to remove a symbolic link to an non-existing directory (for the python binary)

I accidentally typed:

sudo ln -sf /usr/local/bin/python2.5/ /usr/bin/python 

instead of:

sudo ln -sf /usr/local/bin/python2.5 /usr/bin/python

Now bash tells me that /usr/bin/python is not a directory whenever I run python.

ls -l /usr/bin/python gives me expectedly /usr/bin/python --> /usr/local/bin/python2.5/

Is there any safe way to remove that symbolic link to a directory (that does not exist) and replace it with a link to the intended file?

Arigato in advance if you have any ideas.

I am stuck....

like image 947
uploada Avatar asked Feb 25 '23 23:02

uploada


2 Answers

you can simply remove the link with rm :

rm /usr/bin/python
like image 52
krtek Avatar answered Mar 02 '23 00:03

krtek


You remove a symlink the same way you remove a regular file, even if it's a symlink to a directory. (If the target doesn't exist, it's a moot point whether it was intended to be a directory or a file.)

like image 23
Marcelo Cantos Avatar answered Mar 01 '23 23:03

Marcelo Cantos