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in reply to Should -f test return true for symlinks ? [RESOLVED]

(comment on OP's followup question in the UPDATE): The point of the -follow option on find is to allow you to follow a symlink when traversing directories. The default is off*. find $DIR -follow | xargs $something_destructive would be a bad thing to have run, as it could escape from $DIR.

* I saw an instance of this in a previous life when a root cleanup job included -follow, and there was a symlink into a networked file system. Cleaned up the entire shared file system. :-/

--MidLifeXis

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Re^2: Should -f test return true for symlinks ? [RESOLVED]
by vsespb (Chaplain) on Oct 23, 2013 at 19:23 UTC
    also, with "-follow" implementation needs to track all visited directories, to avoid cyclic links, and thus use more memory.
Re^2: Should -f test return true for symlinks ? [RESOLVED]
by Bloodnok (Vicar) on Oct 23, 2013 at 17:52 UTC
    TFT MidLifeXis, never even considered that ... as you can tell :-)

    A user level that continues to overstate my experience :-))