Re: Function to find symlink target

[Emanuel Berg <incal@dataswamp.org>]

Jean Louis wrote:

> Main use for symlinks on a GNU system is in libraries'
> directories:
>
>   lrwxrwxrwx   1    11 May 16  2020 aspell -> aspell-0.60

This is so you can just refer to - here - aspell and it will
lead you to a specific version, or just the version that is
currently installed.

>   lrwxrwxrwx 1   22 Mar 25  2021 libauthcustom.so -> libauthcustom.so.0.0.0
>   lrwxrwxrwx 1   22 Mar 25  2021 libauthcustom.so.0 -> libauthcustom.so.0.0.0

It has to do with versions as well:

  The symbol versioning is a GNU extension to library
  versioning [that] allows a single externally-versioned
  library (e.g. libc.so.6) to provide multiple incompatible
  implementations of the same symbol (before symbol
  versioning, you had to update the external version of the
  library every time you introduced incompatible interface;
  but with symbol versioning you don't). [1]

> Here are more practical example on finding files easier in
> file system by using symlinks for tagging

I have tagging with my e-mail, you can send a mail to
incal+even@dataswamp.org even ...

Not sure what tagging you refer to tho? Maybe symbolic (or
soft) links are pretty useless, is the disappointing truth?

[1] https://stackoverflow.com/a/20443988

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