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I was browsing a directory on a Linux machine, and when doing a detailed listing I noticed that a link is pointing to itself, for example:
somelink -> /path/to/directory/somelink
I am wondering what is the reason for doing such a thing?
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A symlink is a symbolic Linux/ UNIX link that points to another file or folder on your computer, or a connected file system. This is similar to a Windows shortcut. Symlinks can take two forms: Soft links are similar to shortcuts, and can point to another file or directory in any file system.
A symbolic link, also termed a soft link, is a special kind of file that points to another file, much like a shortcut in Windows or a Macintosh alias. Unlike a hard link, a symbolic link does not contain the data in the target file. It simply points to another entry somewhere in the file system.
A symbolic link is a file-system object that points to another file system object. The object being pointed to is called the target. Symbolic links are transparent to users; the links appear as normal files or directories, and can be acted upon by the user or application in exactly the same manner.
A symlink (also called a symbolic link) is a type of file in Linux that points to another file or a folder on your computer. Symlinks are similar to shortcuts in Windows. Some people call symlinks "soft links" – a type of link in Linux/UNIX systems – as opposed to "hard links."
If the somelink is in /path/to/directory then this is an invalid symlink. If you try to access it, the filesystem will give you an error (probably something like too many levels of symbolic links*). It could have been a typo (or some other mistake) when it was created, or the symlink got moved somehow and ended up linking to itself.
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