How to Safely Delete Symbolic (Soft) Links in Linux

What is a symbolic link?

A symbolic (soft) link in Linux is a special file that acts as a shortcut to another file or directory.

Removing a symbolic link with rm

Linux does not provide a dedicated delete command for symlinks; the standard rm command works for both files and links. rm symbolic_link_name The unlink command can also remove a link, but it may delete the target file if used incorrectly.

unlink symbolic_link_name

Example: Deleting a single link

List files to identify the link:

$ ls -l
lrwxrwxrwx 1 user user 26 Oct 17 11:24 mylink -> ./Documents/sample-mark.md

Remove the link with rm and verify that the original file remains:

$ rm mylink
$ ls -l

Deleting multiple symbolic links

You can delete several links in one command:

rm symlink1 symlink2 symlink3

Using unlink to delete a link

The unlink command removes a single link: unlink name_or_path_of_link Note: unlink cannot delete multiple links at once.

Removing a symbolic link that points to a directory

Deleting a directory symlink does not require the -r option. Use the same rm syntax, but omit a trailing slash; otherwise you will get an error.

$ rm link_to_dir/
rm: cannot remove 'link_to_dir/': Is a directory

Avoid using the -f (force) option on directory links, as it may delete the directory contents.

Hard links

Hard links share the same inode as the original file and are indistinguishable from it. You can view inode numbers with: $ ls -li Removing a hard link is the same as deleting a regular file: rm path_or_name_of_hard_link If you need to delete both the link and its target, you can combine readlink with rm: rm "$(readlink '/path/to/link')" /path/to/link Deleting the target without removing the link leaves a dangling (broken) link.

Overall, using rm is recommended for deleting symbolic links because it is familiar and reliable.