GNU bug report logs - #78853
[Bug]: Unexpected Behaviour with the `-r` (relative) `ln` - Parameter

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Message #5 received at submit <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: "NA0341-Services (dev-account)" <na0341-dev <at> posteo.org>
To: bug-coreutils <at> gnu.org
Subject: [Bug]: Unexpected Behaviour with the `-r` (relative) `ln` - Parameter
Date: Fri, 20 Jun 2025 20:58:42 +0000

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Dear GNU Coreutils Maintainers




Today I was trying to create a Relative Symbolic  Link to ~/.face (which 
itself is a Symlink)  named ~/.icon with the following Command:


	$ ln -sir ~/.face ~/.icon

But ln linked ~/.icon to the TARGET ~/.face was linking to, instead (it 
followed or dereferenced ~/.face).


As if I had used the -L, --logical (dereference TARGETs that are symbolic 
links).


I confirmed this behaviour with ZSH (zsh 5.9 (x86_64-pc-linux-gnu)), bash 
(5.2.37(1)-release (x86_64-pc-linux-gnu)) and sh (sh-5.2) on Manjaro Linux 
with the Linux 6.1.138-1-MANJARO Kernel and GNOME on Wayland version 48.


In a conversation with the Claude 3 Haiku AI I confirmed that this is very 
likely to be a bug ~ since `ln` should only dereference the TARGET when the 
-L Option is given.



Thank You for Your Time ~ and I'll wait for your Response




Greetings from Erfurt in Thuringia/Germany




Bela. Kroll (NA0341)

-- 
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Message #8 received at 78853 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Paul Eggert <eggert <at> cs.ucla.edu>
To: "NA0341-Services (dev-account)" <na0341-dev <at> posteo.org>,
 78853 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#78853: [Bug]: Unexpected Behaviour with the `-r` (relative)
 `ln` - Parameter
Date: Sat, 21 Jun 2025 00:55:08 -0700

On 2025-06-20 13:58, NA0341-Services (dev-account) wrote:
> 
> 
> In a conversation with the Claude 3 Haiku AI I confirmed that this is 
> very likely to be a bug ~ since `ln` should only dereference the TARGET 
> when the -L Option is given.

The documentation for 'ln -r' says:

     Relative symbolic links are generated based on their canonicalized
     containing directory, and canonicalized targets.  I.e., all
     symbolic links in these file names will be resolved.

So it appears ln is behaving as documented. The documentation goes on to 
say how you can get finer-grained control.

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