How to move one directory back in unix / linux when path contains symbolic links?

Question

I have created a symbolic link to a deeply nested directory. Using symbolic link i can move to that directory from my home directory. I want to move one directory back from the target directory but the shell comes back to the home directory.

[root@pe1800xs ~]# pwd
/root

[root@pe1800xs ~]# mkdir -p abc/def/ghi/jkl/mno/pqr

[root@pe1800xs ~]# ln -s abc/def/ghi/jkl/mno/pqr/ xyz

[root@pe1800xs ~]# cd xyz

[root@pe1800xs xyz]# pwd
/root/xyz

[root@pe1800xs xyz]# pwd -P
/root/abc/def/ghi/jkl/mno/pqr

[root@pe1800xs xyz]# cd ..

[root@pe1800xs ~]# pwd
/root

What I want to achieve is that when I do cd.. in pqr directory the shell should come to mno directory.

Solution 1

You must use

cd -P xyz

to enter into that directory to follow the original structure of folders, then you can move as you wish because you have resolved the link to the real path.

Solution 2

You have to pass -P option:

cd -P ..