如何在不遵循符号链接的情况下创建指向另一个符号链接的符号链接，同时保持相对路径？

Question

How to create a symlink to another symlink without following target symlink but keeping relative path between the target symlink and created symlink?

Using the following structure for test

├── dst
│   
└── src
    ├── file.txt -> folder/file.txt
    └── folder
        └── file.txt


lrwxrwxrwx 1 user group 15 mars  16 20:05 src/file.txt -> folder/file.txt

Each time I try to create a symlink of src/file.txt (itself a relative symlink of src/folder/file.txt ) in dst folder, the resulting symlink is never like dst/file.txt ->../src/file.txt but always directly to the final target dst/file.txt ->../src/folder/file.txt

ln -s -r [-T] 'src/file.txt' dst/file.txt

Only working without -r and specifying myself the relative path

ln -s '../src/file.txt' dst/file.txt

I need to use this inside a for loop for many files recursively and I would like to keep a relative path between the symlinks but without following target symlink, just a relative symlink to another symlink.

Is it possible to use ln with -r relative option without following target symlink?

Regards

Answer 1

Seems like ln -s -r follows links..

Without the -r option ln -s puts in exactly what you type - so later the other link can be changed and the first directory still works.

# mkdir ABC
# mkdir DEF
# touch DEF/xx.txt
# ls -lAF DEF
total 8
drwxr-xr-x. 2 root root 4096 2021-03-17 11:40 ./
drwxrwxrwt. 4 root root 4096 2021-03-17 11:40 ../
-rw-r--r--. 1 root root    0 2021-03-17 11:40 xx.txt
# ln -s DEF/xx.txt 
# ls -laF
total 16
drwxrwxrwt.  4 root root 4096 2021-03-17 11:40 ./
drwxr-xr-x. 21 root root 4096 2017-03-17 14:13 ../
drwxr-xr-x.  2 root root 4096 2021-03-17 11:40 ABC/
drwxr-xr-x.  2 root root 4096 2021-03-17 11:40 DEF/
lrwxrwxrwx.  1 root root   10 2021-03-17 11:40 xx.txt -> DEF/xx.txt
# cd ABC/
# ln -s ../xx.txt 
# ls -laF
total 8
drwxr-xr-x. 2 root root 4096 2021-03-17 11:40 ./
drwxrwxrwt. 4 root root 4096 2021-03-17 11:40 ../
lrwxrwxrwx. 1 root root    9 2021-03-17 11:40 xx.txt -> ../xx.txt
# echo "ABC" > DEF/xx.txt
# cat ABC/xx.txt
ABC

So all the soft links are soft-links to another soft-link or the file - not resolved all the way through.