SYNOPSIS

       symlinks [ -cdrv ] 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 direc-
       tory as indicated by a leading slash (/).

       dangling links are those for which the target of the link does not cur-
       rently  exist.  This commonly occurs for absolute links when a filesys-
       tem is mounted at other than its customary mount point  (such  as  when
       the normal root filesystem is mounted at /mnt after booting from alter-
       native 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  speci-
       fied, 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 regardless
              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 specified,

SEE ALSO

       symlink(2)



Version 1.1                      November 1994                     SYMLINKS(8)