Safe way to remove a symbolic link to an non-existing directory (for the python binary)

Question

I accidentally typed:

sudo ln -sf /usr/local/bin/python2.5/ /usr/bin/python 

instead of:

sudo ln -sf /usr/local/bin/python2.5 /usr/bin/python

Now bash tells me that /usr/bin/python is not a directory whenever I run python.

ls -l /usr/bin/python gives me expectedly /usr/bin/python --> /usr/local/bin/python2.5/

Is there any safe way to remove that symbolic link to a directory (that does not exist) and replace it with a link to the intended file?

Arigato in advance if you have any ideas.

I am stuck....

Solution 1

you can simply remove the link with rm :

rm /usr/bin/python

Solution 2

You remove a symlink the same way you remove a regular file, even if it's a symlink to a directory. (If the target doesn't exist, it's a moot point whether it was intended to be a directory or a file.)

Comments

[uploada]

won't that remove the whole binary file?

[uploada]

awesome it works. just was too scared about the action. realized that it was just a link.Tks

[Keith Thompson]

@uploada: No, rm on a symlink just removes the symlink, not what it points to.