James G. Sack (jim) wrote:
Ralph Shumaker wrote:
Someone here told me a convenient way to create a link in Nautilus,
namely dragging a file or directory to where I want the link, but before
letting go of the mouse drag button, press Alt. Letting go with the Alt
key down gives a little popup menu.
Now, I'd like to know of an easy way to delete *just* the link, not what
it's pointing to. I'd like an easy mouse-driven way, but presently I
cannot even find a command line way. man ln doesn't give anything
useful that I can see. apropos didn't show much of promise either.
I have a way to do it, but it involves too many steps, namely renaming
what the link points to, deleting the now-dangling link, then renaming
the object back.
I believe you are trying to make it more complicated than it is!
Just delete it. With point and right-click, drag-to-trash (yuk), or
command line rm. The link (only) will be removed -- not the target. Try
it on links to some test files just to reassure yourself.
Regards,
..jim
OK, I'll try it like that.
BTW, right-click-drag doesn't work the way you suggest. The very
*moment* you right click, you get a popup menu (no dragging happens).
As I mentioned before, someone told me to left-click-drag, and
press-and-hold Alt before letting the click go, which will give a little
popup of choices, namely Move, Copy, Link, Set As Background, or
Cancel. (I remember doing right-click-drag in Windows and getting the
popup of similar choices.)
But as to you assertion that I'm trying to make it more complicated than
it is: Take away the part about "trying to" and you might be right.
But it is Nautilus that made me think that it was going to delete both
the link *and* the target.
As a test (just now), I did "$ touch test.file". Then in Nautilus, I
did left-click-drag-Alt ~/test.file to the Desktop and choosing Link. I
then select that link and go to delete it and Nautilus gives me a dialog
saying 'Are you sure you want to permanently delete "test.file"?' It
says nothing about it being a link. This leads me to believe that it is
dragging the baby out along with the bathwater. (I seem to recall
Windows asking "Are you sure you want to delete this shortcut?".)
But, since the test.file is expendable, I told Nautilus "Delete". Just
as you suggest, only the link disappeared.
Thanks jim.
Once you know that it is only going to delete the link and not the
target, it's not so bad. But the dialog presented by Nautilus gives no
distinction that it is only attacking the link. And as long as it
presents it like that, I will likely remain nervous each time I do it,
at least for a while. And if I don't do it often, I might easily
forget. But I will keep in mind to try a simple test first.
I think Nautilus should identify it as a link. Asking if I want to
delete the link "test.file" would remove all doubt. Any file that is
not a link would not need such a distinction.
--
Ralph
--------------------
I don't see much point in providing much if any lenience
When something obnoxious is done "for my convenience".
--Stewart Stremler
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