Cannot edit my.cnf file /etc/mysql/ directory because it is a symbolic link. What can I do?

Question

I'm trying to configure mysql but when I type:

sudoedit /etc/mysql/my.cnf 

it says I cannot edit a symbolic link.

Can I remove the symbolic link or change the security settings to allow a symbolic link to be edited? Does it have anything to do with apparmor restrictions?

Solution

That is normal behaviour for sudoedit (see man sudoedit)

To help prevent the editing of unauthorized files, the following restrictions are enforced unless explicitly allowed by the security policy:

             ·   Symbolic links may not be edited (version 1.8.15 and
                 higher).

You can edit the file pointed to by the symlink by calling a text editor directly, for example

sudo nano /etc/mysql/my.cnf

will follow the symlink to the file it points to and allow you to edit that file.

But it would be better to find the regular file by doing

readlink -e /etc/mysql/my.cnf

This will find the regular file pointed to by the symlink, so you can sudoedit it, leaving the symlink alone. Applications that read /etc/mysql/my.cnf will read the file it points to.

Comments

[TheWanderer]

I don't think symlinks actually contain any info besides the pointer to the original file. sudoedit probably tries to directly edit the file and doesn't try to follow symlinks, so it doesn't allow you to edit.