[BK-2020-03.git] / doc / user / rmsym.org

* rmsym - Symlink deleter
#+TITLE: rmsym - Symlink deleter
#+AUTHOR: Steven Baltakatei Sandoval
#+DATE:2023-02-20
#+EMAIL:baltakatei@gmail.com
#+LANGUAGE: en
#+OPTIONS: toc:nil

Created by [[https://baltakatei.com][Steven Baltakatei Sandoval]] on
2023-02-20T18:43+00
under a [[https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/][CC BY-SA 4.0]] (🅭🅯🄎4.0) license and last updated on
2023-02-20T18:43+00

** Summary
~rmsym~ is a Bash script which deletes symbolic links specified by
positional arguments.

** Versions
| Version | Description                                                    |
|---------+----------------------------------------------------------------|
|   0.0.1 | Initial version. Does not accept or pass on arguments to ~rm~. |
|         |                                                                |

** Background
I needed a script that would let me quickly delete only symlinks if I
were to provide it with a mix of paths of files, directories, or
symlinks; specifically, I want to be able to create music playlists
that any music player can parse; most music players can recursively
scan directories and a directory tree of symlinks would reduce the
need to maintain multiple copies of music files on the same file
system. However, in order to assure myself that when I prune symlinks
that I don't delete actual files targeted by the symlinks, I need a
program that will only delete symlinks.

Bash supports testing whether a path is a symlink or not via the ~-h~
test. For example, here is a simple Bash script that will report
whether a symlink is present at ~$HOME/foo.txt~ or not.

#+begin_example
#!/bin/bash
path_myfile="$HOME/foo.txt";
if [[ -h "$path_myfile" ]]; then
  echo "STATUS:Is a symlink:$path_myfile";
else
  echo "STATUS:Is not a symlink:$path_myfile";
fi;
#+end_example

** Reference
- "Bash Reference Manual", Section: "[[https://www.gnu.org/software/bash/manual/bash.html#Bash-Conditional-Expressions][6.4 Bash Conditional Expressions]]". gnu.org.
Commit	Line	Data
cffa431b SBS	1	* rmsym - Symlink deleter
	2	#+TITLE: rmsym - Symlink deleter
	3	#+AUTHOR: Steven Baltakatei Sandoval
	4	#+DATE:2023-02-20
	5	#+EMAIL:baltakatei@gmail.com
	6	#+LANGUAGE: en
	7	#+OPTIONS: toc:nil
	8
	9	Created by [[https://baltakatei.com][Steven Baltakatei Sandoval]] on
	10	2023-02-20T18:43+00
	11	under a [[https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/][CC BY-SA 4.0]] (🅭🅯🄎4.0) license and last updated on
	12	2023-02-20T18:43+00
	13
	14	** Summary
	15	~rmsym~ is a Bash script which deletes symbolic links specified by
	16	positional arguments.
	17
	18	** Versions
	19	\| Version \| Description \|
	20	\|---------+----------------------------------------------------------------\|
	21	\| 0.0.1 \| Initial version. Does not accept or pass on arguments to ~rm~. \|
	22	\| \| \|
	23
	24	** Background
	25	I needed a script that would let me quickly delete only symlinks if I
	26	were to provide it with a mix of paths of files, directories, or
	27	symlinks; specifically, I want to be able to create music playlists
	28	that any music player can parse; most music players can recursively
	29	scan directories and a directory tree of symlinks would reduce the
	30	need to maintain multiple copies of music files on the same file
	31	system. However, in order to assure myself that when I prune symlinks
	32	that I don't delete actual files targeted by the symlinks, I need a
	33	program that will only delete symlinks.
	34
	35	Bash supports testing whether a path is a symlink or not via the ~-h~
	36	test. For example, here is a simple Bash script that will report
	37	whether a symlink is present at ~$HOME/foo.txt~ or not.
	38
	39	#+begin_example
	40	#!/bin/bash
	41	path_myfile="$HOME/foo.txt";
	42	if [[ -h "$path_myfile" ]]; then
	43	echo "STATUS:Is a symlink:$path_myfile";
	44	else
	45	echo "STATUS:Is not a symlink:$path_myfile";
	46	fi;
	47	#+end_example
	48
	49	** Reference
	50	- "Bash Reference Manual", Section: "[[https://www.gnu.org/software/bash/manual/bash.html#Bash-Conditional-Expressions][6.4 Bash Conditional Expressions]]". gnu.org.