How to remove a directory with “Too many levels of symlinks”

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7















I have a bit of an odd problem on a RHEL system.



On our systems we have our home directory automounted under /export/home. There are a few exceptions, as I'm experimenting with using gluster for our home dirs. These are automounted under /gluster/home



This works on all our (30+) servers. Today this stopped working on one of them. I get the error:



Too many levels of symlinks


when trying to cd into /gluster/home/$HOME...



I ended up temporary moving /gluster to /gluster_broken, and made a new /gluster/home, restarted autofs and things work again.



Now I want to remove /gluster_broken.



The problem is that aparently there is some symlink loop in /gluster_broken/home. I don't know where it came from. My attempts to get rid of it have been fruitless so far.



[root@dc1-03 /]# rm -rf gluster_broken/
rm: cannot remove `gluster_broken/home': Too many levels of symbolic links
[root@dc1-03 /]# rm -rf /gluster_broken/
rm: cannot remove `/gluster_broken/home': Too many levels of symbolic links
[root@dc1-03 /]# rm -rf /gluster_broken/home/
rm: cannot remove `/gluster_broken/home/': Is a directory
[root@dc1-03 /]# rm -rf /gluster_broken/home
rm: cannot remove `/gluster_broken/home': Too many levels of symbolic links
[root@dc1-03 /]# rmdir /gluster_broken/home/
rmdir: failed to remove `/gluster_broken/home/': Device or resource busy
[root@dc1-03 /]# fuser -m /gluster_broken/home/
Cannot stat /gluster_broken/home/: Too many levels of symbolic links
Cannot stat /gluster_broken/home/: Too many levels of symbolic links
Cannot stat /gluster_broken/home/: Too many levels of symbolic links
[root@dc1-03 /]# ls -ld /gluster_broken/home/
ls: cannot access /gluster_broken/home/: Too many levels of symbolic links
[root@dc1-03 /]# ls -ld /gluster_broken/home
drwxr-xr-x. 2 root root 0 Jan 22 10:20 /gluster_broken/home
[root@dc1-03 /]# fuser -m /gluster_broken/home


As you can see most commands all yield the same error message. I would really like to get rid of this problem. But I'm a bit at a loss here. Any suggestions?



Output of suggested commands:



[root@dc1-03 /]# ls /gluster_broken/
home
[root@dc1-03 /]# ls /gluster_broken/home/
ls: cannot access /gluster_broken/home/: Too many levels of symbolic links
[root@dc1-03 /]# ls -hblF /gluster_broken /gluster_broken/home
/gluster_broken:
total 0
drwxr-xr-x. 2 root root 0 Feb 4 12:00 home/
ls: cannot open directory /gluster_broken/home: Too many levels of symbolic links









share|improve this question
























  • A bit of a guess/hack, but what if you mount something to gluster_broken/home then try to rm -rf gluster_broken ?

    – virtualxtc
    Feb 4 '14 at 8:43











  • An obvious question, but what does gluster_broken contain? Can you give a listing?

    – Faheem Mitha
    Feb 4 '14 at 8:45






  • 2





    How is /gluster_broken/home mounted (as seen in /proc/mounts)?

    – Stéphane Chazelas
    Feb 4 '14 at 10:46












  • Can you show the output of ls -hblF /gluster_broken /gluster_broken/home

    – RSFalcon7
    Feb 4 '14 at 11:03











  • What does namei /gluster_broken/home say?

    – Gilles
    Feb 4 '14 at 23:29















7















I have a bit of an odd problem on a RHEL system.



On our systems we have our home directory automounted under /export/home. There are a few exceptions, as I'm experimenting with using gluster for our home dirs. These are automounted under /gluster/home



This works on all our (30+) servers. Today this stopped working on one of them. I get the error:



Too many levels of symlinks


when trying to cd into /gluster/home/$HOME...



I ended up temporary moving /gluster to /gluster_broken, and made a new /gluster/home, restarted autofs and things work again.



Now I want to remove /gluster_broken.



The problem is that aparently there is some symlink loop in /gluster_broken/home. I don't know where it came from. My attempts to get rid of it have been fruitless so far.



[root@dc1-03 /]# rm -rf gluster_broken/
rm: cannot remove `gluster_broken/home': Too many levels of symbolic links
[root@dc1-03 /]# rm -rf /gluster_broken/
rm: cannot remove `/gluster_broken/home': Too many levels of symbolic links
[root@dc1-03 /]# rm -rf /gluster_broken/home/
rm: cannot remove `/gluster_broken/home/': Is a directory
[root@dc1-03 /]# rm -rf /gluster_broken/home
rm: cannot remove `/gluster_broken/home': Too many levels of symbolic links
[root@dc1-03 /]# rmdir /gluster_broken/home/
rmdir: failed to remove `/gluster_broken/home/': Device or resource busy
[root@dc1-03 /]# fuser -m /gluster_broken/home/
Cannot stat /gluster_broken/home/: Too many levels of symbolic links
Cannot stat /gluster_broken/home/: Too many levels of symbolic links
Cannot stat /gluster_broken/home/: Too many levels of symbolic links
[root@dc1-03 /]# ls -ld /gluster_broken/home/
ls: cannot access /gluster_broken/home/: Too many levels of symbolic links
[root@dc1-03 /]# ls -ld /gluster_broken/home
drwxr-xr-x. 2 root root 0 Jan 22 10:20 /gluster_broken/home
[root@dc1-03 /]# fuser -m /gluster_broken/home


As you can see most commands all yield the same error message. I would really like to get rid of this problem. But I'm a bit at a loss here. Any suggestions?



Output of suggested commands:



[root@dc1-03 /]# ls /gluster_broken/
home
[root@dc1-03 /]# ls /gluster_broken/home/
ls: cannot access /gluster_broken/home/: Too many levels of symbolic links
[root@dc1-03 /]# ls -hblF /gluster_broken /gluster_broken/home
/gluster_broken:
total 0
drwxr-xr-x. 2 root root 0 Feb 4 12:00 home/
ls: cannot open directory /gluster_broken/home: Too many levels of symbolic links









share|improve this question
























  • A bit of a guess/hack, but what if you mount something to gluster_broken/home then try to rm -rf gluster_broken ?

    – virtualxtc
    Feb 4 '14 at 8:43











  • An obvious question, but what does gluster_broken contain? Can you give a listing?

    – Faheem Mitha
    Feb 4 '14 at 8:45






  • 2





    How is /gluster_broken/home mounted (as seen in /proc/mounts)?

    – Stéphane Chazelas
    Feb 4 '14 at 10:46












  • Can you show the output of ls -hblF /gluster_broken /gluster_broken/home

    – RSFalcon7
    Feb 4 '14 at 11:03











  • What does namei /gluster_broken/home say?

    – Gilles
    Feb 4 '14 at 23:29













7












7








7








I have a bit of an odd problem on a RHEL system.



On our systems we have our home directory automounted under /export/home. There are a few exceptions, as I'm experimenting with using gluster for our home dirs. These are automounted under /gluster/home



This works on all our (30+) servers. Today this stopped working on one of them. I get the error:



Too many levels of symlinks


when trying to cd into /gluster/home/$HOME...



I ended up temporary moving /gluster to /gluster_broken, and made a new /gluster/home, restarted autofs and things work again.



Now I want to remove /gluster_broken.



The problem is that aparently there is some symlink loop in /gluster_broken/home. I don't know where it came from. My attempts to get rid of it have been fruitless so far.



[root@dc1-03 /]# rm -rf gluster_broken/
rm: cannot remove `gluster_broken/home': Too many levels of symbolic links
[root@dc1-03 /]# rm -rf /gluster_broken/
rm: cannot remove `/gluster_broken/home': Too many levels of symbolic links
[root@dc1-03 /]# rm -rf /gluster_broken/home/
rm: cannot remove `/gluster_broken/home/': Is a directory
[root@dc1-03 /]# rm -rf /gluster_broken/home
rm: cannot remove `/gluster_broken/home': Too many levels of symbolic links
[root@dc1-03 /]# rmdir /gluster_broken/home/
rmdir: failed to remove `/gluster_broken/home/': Device or resource busy
[root@dc1-03 /]# fuser -m /gluster_broken/home/
Cannot stat /gluster_broken/home/: Too many levels of symbolic links
Cannot stat /gluster_broken/home/: Too many levels of symbolic links
Cannot stat /gluster_broken/home/: Too many levels of symbolic links
[root@dc1-03 /]# ls -ld /gluster_broken/home/
ls: cannot access /gluster_broken/home/: Too many levels of symbolic links
[root@dc1-03 /]# ls -ld /gluster_broken/home
drwxr-xr-x. 2 root root 0 Jan 22 10:20 /gluster_broken/home
[root@dc1-03 /]# fuser -m /gluster_broken/home


As you can see most commands all yield the same error message. I would really like to get rid of this problem. But I'm a bit at a loss here. Any suggestions?



Output of suggested commands:



[root@dc1-03 /]# ls /gluster_broken/
home
[root@dc1-03 /]# ls /gluster_broken/home/
ls: cannot access /gluster_broken/home/: Too many levels of symbolic links
[root@dc1-03 /]# ls -hblF /gluster_broken /gluster_broken/home
/gluster_broken:
total 0
drwxr-xr-x. 2 root root 0 Feb 4 12:00 home/
ls: cannot open directory /gluster_broken/home: Too many levels of symbolic links









share|improve this question
















I have a bit of an odd problem on a RHEL system.



On our systems we have our home directory automounted under /export/home. There are a few exceptions, as I'm experimenting with using gluster for our home dirs. These are automounted under /gluster/home



This works on all our (30+) servers. Today this stopped working on one of them. I get the error:



Too many levels of symlinks


when trying to cd into /gluster/home/$HOME...



I ended up temporary moving /gluster to /gluster_broken, and made a new /gluster/home, restarted autofs and things work again.



Now I want to remove /gluster_broken.



The problem is that aparently there is some symlink loop in /gluster_broken/home. I don't know where it came from. My attempts to get rid of it have been fruitless so far.



[root@dc1-03 /]# rm -rf gluster_broken/
rm: cannot remove `gluster_broken/home': Too many levels of symbolic links
[root@dc1-03 /]# rm -rf /gluster_broken/
rm: cannot remove `/gluster_broken/home': Too many levels of symbolic links
[root@dc1-03 /]# rm -rf /gluster_broken/home/
rm: cannot remove `/gluster_broken/home/': Is a directory
[root@dc1-03 /]# rm -rf /gluster_broken/home
rm: cannot remove `/gluster_broken/home': Too many levels of symbolic links
[root@dc1-03 /]# rmdir /gluster_broken/home/
rmdir: failed to remove `/gluster_broken/home/': Device or resource busy
[root@dc1-03 /]# fuser -m /gluster_broken/home/
Cannot stat /gluster_broken/home/: Too many levels of symbolic links
Cannot stat /gluster_broken/home/: Too many levels of symbolic links
Cannot stat /gluster_broken/home/: Too many levels of symbolic links
[root@dc1-03 /]# ls -ld /gluster_broken/home/
ls: cannot access /gluster_broken/home/: Too many levels of symbolic links
[root@dc1-03 /]# ls -ld /gluster_broken/home
drwxr-xr-x. 2 root root 0 Jan 22 10:20 /gluster_broken/home
[root@dc1-03 /]# fuser -m /gluster_broken/home


As you can see most commands all yield the same error message. I would really like to get rid of this problem. But I'm a bit at a loss here. Any suggestions?



Output of suggested commands:



[root@dc1-03 /]# ls /gluster_broken/
home
[root@dc1-03 /]# ls /gluster_broken/home/
ls: cannot access /gluster_broken/home/: Too many levels of symbolic links
[root@dc1-03 /]# ls -hblF /gluster_broken /gluster_broken/home
/gluster_broken:
total 0
drwxr-xr-x. 2 root root 0 Feb 4 12:00 home/
ls: cannot open directory /gluster_broken/home: Too many levels of symbolic links






symlink






share|improve this question















share|improve this question













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share|improve this question








edited Feb 5 '14 at 14:04







Krist van Besien

















asked Feb 4 '14 at 8:36









Krist van BesienKrist van Besien

136115




136115












  • A bit of a guess/hack, but what if you mount something to gluster_broken/home then try to rm -rf gluster_broken ?

    – virtualxtc
    Feb 4 '14 at 8:43











  • An obvious question, but what does gluster_broken contain? Can you give a listing?

    – Faheem Mitha
    Feb 4 '14 at 8:45






  • 2





    How is /gluster_broken/home mounted (as seen in /proc/mounts)?

    – Stéphane Chazelas
    Feb 4 '14 at 10:46












  • Can you show the output of ls -hblF /gluster_broken /gluster_broken/home

    – RSFalcon7
    Feb 4 '14 at 11:03











  • What does namei /gluster_broken/home say?

    – Gilles
    Feb 4 '14 at 23:29

















  • A bit of a guess/hack, but what if you mount something to gluster_broken/home then try to rm -rf gluster_broken ?

    – virtualxtc
    Feb 4 '14 at 8:43











  • An obvious question, but what does gluster_broken contain? Can you give a listing?

    – Faheem Mitha
    Feb 4 '14 at 8:45






  • 2





    How is /gluster_broken/home mounted (as seen in /proc/mounts)?

    – Stéphane Chazelas
    Feb 4 '14 at 10:46












  • Can you show the output of ls -hblF /gluster_broken /gluster_broken/home

    – RSFalcon7
    Feb 4 '14 at 11:03











  • What does namei /gluster_broken/home say?

    – Gilles
    Feb 4 '14 at 23:29
















A bit of a guess/hack, but what if you mount something to gluster_broken/home then try to rm -rf gluster_broken ?

– virtualxtc
Feb 4 '14 at 8:43





A bit of a guess/hack, but what if you mount something to gluster_broken/home then try to rm -rf gluster_broken ?

– virtualxtc
Feb 4 '14 at 8:43













An obvious question, but what does gluster_broken contain? Can you give a listing?

– Faheem Mitha
Feb 4 '14 at 8:45





An obvious question, but what does gluster_broken contain? Can you give a listing?

– Faheem Mitha
Feb 4 '14 at 8:45




2




2





How is /gluster_broken/home mounted (as seen in /proc/mounts)?

– Stéphane Chazelas
Feb 4 '14 at 10:46






How is /gluster_broken/home mounted (as seen in /proc/mounts)?

– Stéphane Chazelas
Feb 4 '14 at 10:46














Can you show the output of ls -hblF /gluster_broken /gluster_broken/home

– RSFalcon7
Feb 4 '14 at 11:03





Can you show the output of ls -hblF /gluster_broken /gluster_broken/home

– RSFalcon7
Feb 4 '14 at 11:03













What does namei /gluster_broken/home say?

– Gilles
Feb 4 '14 at 23:29





What does namei /gluster_broken/home say?

– Gilles
Feb 4 '14 at 23:29










4 Answers
4






active

oldest

votes


















4














Try find.



find -L /gluster_broken -mindepth 10


to find the link loops



then a non recursive rm on the erroneous file(s)



find will follow links and find the same "too many levels" error. I use -mindepth to filter out anything less than 10 deep to avoid the ok files/directories. Yes, this does assume that you don't have more that 10 deep in your normal tree. All this command is trying to do is find the file in error.



-- edit



I think following command is better,



find -L /gluster_broken >/dev/null


Here's my test



$ find .
.
./dira
./dira/a
./dira/dirb
./dira/dirb/dirc
./dira/error
./dira/b
./dira/test
./dira/test/ab&<cd.file
./dira/test/magic?newlines
./dira/test/cleanup
$ find -L . >/dev/null
find: ‘./dira/a’: Too many levels of symbolic links
find: ‘./dira/error’: Too many levels of symbolic links
find: ‘./dira/b’: Too many levels of symbolic links
$


--- edit 2



I think my suggestion (comment) to check file-system might be best, I have just seen this answer and wonder if you have a similar issue.






share|improve this answer

























  • Why does this work?

    – Anko
    Feb 4 '14 at 16:59











  • Oops there's a typo -maxdepth 10 shouldn't be there. I'll edit.

    – X Tian
    Feb 4 '14 at 18:05











  • My problem is that about anything that somehow tries to do something with /gluster_broken/home throws this "to many levels of symbolic links" error. The "find" command suggested above does throw this error too, so I am not getting any usefull info out of it.

    – Krist van Besien
    Feb 5 '14 at 14:02











  • I think that /gluster_broken/home is looping on to itself. I would like to know however how this happened, and what I can do to fix it.

    – Krist van Besien
    Feb 5 '14 at 14:07











  • Would be so interesting to see output of ls -l /gluster_broken .

    – X Tian
    Feb 5 '14 at 15:14


















4














Maybe I'm wrong, but it seems no one else answered the question.



The issue is that you have the / at the end of your command.



Instead of



rm gluster/


just run



rm gluster


By putting the / at the end you are attempting to go into the directory, which is a circular link, so it never finds the bottom. Without the /, you are simply removing the symbolic link.






share|improve this answer






























    1














    I recently ran into this same problem when creating a symlink without giving it an absolute directory.



    This gave the same error when trying to read the file ("Too many levels of symlinks"):



    ln -s ./config ~/.config/terminator


    Seemingly because the symlink tries to go back on itself:



    ls -l ~/.config/terminator
    lrwxrwxrwx 1 zane zane 8 Dec 22 16:14 config -> ./config


    But this worked:



    ln -s /home/zane/config ~/.config/terminator/config


    Hopefully, this will help someone in the same situation.






    share|improve this answer

























    • Yes, but here we see the symlink object.

      – Kaz
      Oct 13 '16 at 5:35


















    0














    You cant remove /gluster_broken/home becouse /gluster_broken is a broken link itself.



    ls -l /gluster_broken


    you will see it is a link. So remove it:



    rm /gluster_broken





    share|improve this answer






















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      4 Answers
      4






      active

      oldest

      votes








      4 Answers
      4






      active

      oldest

      votes









      active

      oldest

      votes






      active

      oldest

      votes









      4














      Try find.



      find -L /gluster_broken -mindepth 10


      to find the link loops



      then a non recursive rm on the erroneous file(s)



      find will follow links and find the same "too many levels" error. I use -mindepth to filter out anything less than 10 deep to avoid the ok files/directories. Yes, this does assume that you don't have more that 10 deep in your normal tree. All this command is trying to do is find the file in error.



      -- edit



      I think following command is better,



      find -L /gluster_broken >/dev/null


      Here's my test



      $ find .
      .
      ./dira
      ./dira/a
      ./dira/dirb
      ./dira/dirb/dirc
      ./dira/error
      ./dira/b
      ./dira/test
      ./dira/test/ab&<cd.file
      ./dira/test/magic?newlines
      ./dira/test/cleanup
      $ find -L . >/dev/null
      find: ‘./dira/a’: Too many levels of symbolic links
      find: ‘./dira/error’: Too many levels of symbolic links
      find: ‘./dira/b’: Too many levels of symbolic links
      $


      --- edit 2



      I think my suggestion (comment) to check file-system might be best, I have just seen this answer and wonder if you have a similar issue.






      share|improve this answer

























      • Why does this work?

        – Anko
        Feb 4 '14 at 16:59











      • Oops there's a typo -maxdepth 10 shouldn't be there. I'll edit.

        – X Tian
        Feb 4 '14 at 18:05











      • My problem is that about anything that somehow tries to do something with /gluster_broken/home throws this "to many levels of symbolic links" error. The "find" command suggested above does throw this error too, so I am not getting any usefull info out of it.

        – Krist van Besien
        Feb 5 '14 at 14:02











      • I think that /gluster_broken/home is looping on to itself. I would like to know however how this happened, and what I can do to fix it.

        – Krist van Besien
        Feb 5 '14 at 14:07











      • Would be so interesting to see output of ls -l /gluster_broken .

        – X Tian
        Feb 5 '14 at 15:14















      4














      Try find.



      find -L /gluster_broken -mindepth 10


      to find the link loops



      then a non recursive rm on the erroneous file(s)



      find will follow links and find the same "too many levels" error. I use -mindepth to filter out anything less than 10 deep to avoid the ok files/directories. Yes, this does assume that you don't have more that 10 deep in your normal tree. All this command is trying to do is find the file in error.



      -- edit



      I think following command is better,



      find -L /gluster_broken >/dev/null


      Here's my test



      $ find .
      .
      ./dira
      ./dira/a
      ./dira/dirb
      ./dira/dirb/dirc
      ./dira/error
      ./dira/b
      ./dira/test
      ./dira/test/ab&<cd.file
      ./dira/test/magic?newlines
      ./dira/test/cleanup
      $ find -L . >/dev/null
      find: ‘./dira/a’: Too many levels of symbolic links
      find: ‘./dira/error’: Too many levels of symbolic links
      find: ‘./dira/b’: Too many levels of symbolic links
      $


      --- edit 2



      I think my suggestion (comment) to check file-system might be best, I have just seen this answer and wonder if you have a similar issue.






      share|improve this answer

























      • Why does this work?

        – Anko
        Feb 4 '14 at 16:59











      • Oops there's a typo -maxdepth 10 shouldn't be there. I'll edit.

        – X Tian
        Feb 4 '14 at 18:05











      • My problem is that about anything that somehow tries to do something with /gluster_broken/home throws this "to many levels of symbolic links" error. The "find" command suggested above does throw this error too, so I am not getting any usefull info out of it.

        – Krist van Besien
        Feb 5 '14 at 14:02











      • I think that /gluster_broken/home is looping on to itself. I would like to know however how this happened, and what I can do to fix it.

        – Krist van Besien
        Feb 5 '14 at 14:07











      • Would be so interesting to see output of ls -l /gluster_broken .

        – X Tian
        Feb 5 '14 at 15:14













      4












      4








      4







      Try find.



      find -L /gluster_broken -mindepth 10


      to find the link loops



      then a non recursive rm on the erroneous file(s)



      find will follow links and find the same "too many levels" error. I use -mindepth to filter out anything less than 10 deep to avoid the ok files/directories. Yes, this does assume that you don't have more that 10 deep in your normal tree. All this command is trying to do is find the file in error.



      -- edit



      I think following command is better,



      find -L /gluster_broken >/dev/null


      Here's my test



      $ find .
      .
      ./dira
      ./dira/a
      ./dira/dirb
      ./dira/dirb/dirc
      ./dira/error
      ./dira/b
      ./dira/test
      ./dira/test/ab&<cd.file
      ./dira/test/magic?newlines
      ./dira/test/cleanup
      $ find -L . >/dev/null
      find: ‘./dira/a’: Too many levels of symbolic links
      find: ‘./dira/error’: Too many levels of symbolic links
      find: ‘./dira/b’: Too many levels of symbolic links
      $


      --- edit 2



      I think my suggestion (comment) to check file-system might be best, I have just seen this answer and wonder if you have a similar issue.






      share|improve this answer















      Try find.



      find -L /gluster_broken -mindepth 10


      to find the link loops



      then a non recursive rm on the erroneous file(s)



      find will follow links and find the same "too many levels" error. I use -mindepth to filter out anything less than 10 deep to avoid the ok files/directories. Yes, this does assume that you don't have more that 10 deep in your normal tree. All this command is trying to do is find the file in error.



      -- edit



      I think following command is better,



      find -L /gluster_broken >/dev/null


      Here's my test



      $ find .
      .
      ./dira
      ./dira/a
      ./dira/dirb
      ./dira/dirb/dirc
      ./dira/error
      ./dira/b
      ./dira/test
      ./dira/test/ab&<cd.file
      ./dira/test/magic?newlines
      ./dira/test/cleanup
      $ find -L . >/dev/null
      find: ‘./dira/a’: Too many levels of symbolic links
      find: ‘./dira/error’: Too many levels of symbolic links
      find: ‘./dira/b’: Too many levels of symbolic links
      $


      --- edit 2



      I think my suggestion (comment) to check file-system might be best, I have just seen this answer and wonder if you have a similar issue.







      share|improve this answer














      share|improve this answer



      share|improve this answer








      edited Mar 20 '17 at 10:18









      Community

      1




      1










      answered Feb 4 '14 at 12:27









      X TianX Tian

      7,74512237




      7,74512237












      • Why does this work?

        – Anko
        Feb 4 '14 at 16:59











      • Oops there's a typo -maxdepth 10 shouldn't be there. I'll edit.

        – X Tian
        Feb 4 '14 at 18:05











      • My problem is that about anything that somehow tries to do something with /gluster_broken/home throws this "to many levels of symbolic links" error. The "find" command suggested above does throw this error too, so I am not getting any usefull info out of it.

        – Krist van Besien
        Feb 5 '14 at 14:02











      • I think that /gluster_broken/home is looping on to itself. I would like to know however how this happened, and what I can do to fix it.

        – Krist van Besien
        Feb 5 '14 at 14:07











      • Would be so interesting to see output of ls -l /gluster_broken .

        – X Tian
        Feb 5 '14 at 15:14

















      • Why does this work?

        – Anko
        Feb 4 '14 at 16:59











      • Oops there's a typo -maxdepth 10 shouldn't be there. I'll edit.

        – X Tian
        Feb 4 '14 at 18:05











      • My problem is that about anything that somehow tries to do something with /gluster_broken/home throws this "to many levels of symbolic links" error. The "find" command suggested above does throw this error too, so I am not getting any usefull info out of it.

        – Krist van Besien
        Feb 5 '14 at 14:02











      • I think that /gluster_broken/home is looping on to itself. I would like to know however how this happened, and what I can do to fix it.

        – Krist van Besien
        Feb 5 '14 at 14:07











      • Would be so interesting to see output of ls -l /gluster_broken .

        – X Tian
        Feb 5 '14 at 15:14
















      Why does this work?

      – Anko
      Feb 4 '14 at 16:59





      Why does this work?

      – Anko
      Feb 4 '14 at 16:59













      Oops there's a typo -maxdepth 10 shouldn't be there. I'll edit.

      – X Tian
      Feb 4 '14 at 18:05





      Oops there's a typo -maxdepth 10 shouldn't be there. I'll edit.

      – X Tian
      Feb 4 '14 at 18:05













      My problem is that about anything that somehow tries to do something with /gluster_broken/home throws this "to many levels of symbolic links" error. The "find" command suggested above does throw this error too, so I am not getting any usefull info out of it.

      – Krist van Besien
      Feb 5 '14 at 14:02





      My problem is that about anything that somehow tries to do something with /gluster_broken/home throws this "to many levels of symbolic links" error. The "find" command suggested above does throw this error too, so I am not getting any usefull info out of it.

      – Krist van Besien
      Feb 5 '14 at 14:02













      I think that /gluster_broken/home is looping on to itself. I would like to know however how this happened, and what I can do to fix it.

      – Krist van Besien
      Feb 5 '14 at 14:07





      I think that /gluster_broken/home is looping on to itself. I would like to know however how this happened, and what I can do to fix it.

      – Krist van Besien
      Feb 5 '14 at 14:07













      Would be so interesting to see output of ls -l /gluster_broken .

      – X Tian
      Feb 5 '14 at 15:14





      Would be so interesting to see output of ls -l /gluster_broken .

      – X Tian
      Feb 5 '14 at 15:14













      4














      Maybe I'm wrong, but it seems no one else answered the question.



      The issue is that you have the / at the end of your command.



      Instead of



      rm gluster/


      just run



      rm gluster


      By putting the / at the end you are attempting to go into the directory, which is a circular link, so it never finds the bottom. Without the /, you are simply removing the symbolic link.






      share|improve this answer



























        4














        Maybe I'm wrong, but it seems no one else answered the question.



        The issue is that you have the / at the end of your command.



        Instead of



        rm gluster/


        just run



        rm gluster


        By putting the / at the end you are attempting to go into the directory, which is a circular link, so it never finds the bottom. Without the /, you are simply removing the symbolic link.






        share|improve this answer

























          4












          4








          4







          Maybe I'm wrong, but it seems no one else answered the question.



          The issue is that you have the / at the end of your command.



          Instead of



          rm gluster/


          just run



          rm gluster


          By putting the / at the end you are attempting to go into the directory, which is a circular link, so it never finds the bottom. Without the /, you are simply removing the symbolic link.






          share|improve this answer













          Maybe I'm wrong, but it seems no one else answered the question.



          The issue is that you have the / at the end of your command.



          Instead of



          rm gluster/


          just run



          rm gluster


          By putting the / at the end you are attempting to go into the directory, which is a circular link, so it never finds the bottom. Without the /, you are simply removing the symbolic link.







          share|improve this answer












          share|improve this answer



          share|improve this answer










          answered Oct 13 '16 at 4:13









          nivekmainivekmai

          411




          411





















              1














              I recently ran into this same problem when creating a symlink without giving it an absolute directory.



              This gave the same error when trying to read the file ("Too many levels of symlinks"):



              ln -s ./config ~/.config/terminator


              Seemingly because the symlink tries to go back on itself:



              ls -l ~/.config/terminator
              lrwxrwxrwx 1 zane zane 8 Dec 22 16:14 config -> ./config


              But this worked:



              ln -s /home/zane/config ~/.config/terminator/config


              Hopefully, this will help someone in the same situation.






              share|improve this answer

























              • Yes, but here we see the symlink object.

                – Kaz
                Oct 13 '16 at 5:35















              1














              I recently ran into this same problem when creating a symlink without giving it an absolute directory.



              This gave the same error when trying to read the file ("Too many levels of symlinks"):



              ln -s ./config ~/.config/terminator


              Seemingly because the symlink tries to go back on itself:



              ls -l ~/.config/terminator
              lrwxrwxrwx 1 zane zane 8 Dec 22 16:14 config -> ./config


              But this worked:



              ln -s /home/zane/config ~/.config/terminator/config


              Hopefully, this will help someone in the same situation.






              share|improve this answer

























              • Yes, but here we see the symlink object.

                – Kaz
                Oct 13 '16 at 5:35













              1












              1








              1







              I recently ran into this same problem when creating a symlink without giving it an absolute directory.



              This gave the same error when trying to read the file ("Too many levels of symlinks"):



              ln -s ./config ~/.config/terminator


              Seemingly because the symlink tries to go back on itself:



              ls -l ~/.config/terminator
              lrwxrwxrwx 1 zane zane 8 Dec 22 16:14 config -> ./config


              But this worked:



              ln -s /home/zane/config ~/.config/terminator/config


              Hopefully, this will help someone in the same situation.






              share|improve this answer















              I recently ran into this same problem when creating a symlink without giving it an absolute directory.



              This gave the same error when trying to read the file ("Too many levels of symlinks"):



              ln -s ./config ~/.config/terminator


              Seemingly because the symlink tries to go back on itself:



              ls -l ~/.config/terminator
              lrwxrwxrwx 1 zane zane 8 Dec 22 16:14 config -> ./config


              But this worked:



              ln -s /home/zane/config ~/.config/terminator/config


              Hopefully, this will help someone in the same situation.







              share|improve this answer














              share|improve this answer



              share|improve this answer








              edited Oct 13 '16 at 18:00

























              answered Dec 22 '14 at 21:16









              Zane HooperZane Hooper

              1214




              1214












              • Yes, but here we see the symlink object.

                – Kaz
                Oct 13 '16 at 5:35

















              • Yes, but here we see the symlink object.

                – Kaz
                Oct 13 '16 at 5:35
















              Yes, but here we see the symlink object.

              – Kaz
              Oct 13 '16 at 5:35





              Yes, but here we see the symlink object.

              – Kaz
              Oct 13 '16 at 5:35











              0














              You cant remove /gluster_broken/home becouse /gluster_broken is a broken link itself.



              ls -l /gluster_broken


              you will see it is a link. So remove it:



              rm /gluster_broken





              share|improve this answer



























                0














                You cant remove /gluster_broken/home becouse /gluster_broken is a broken link itself.



                ls -l /gluster_broken


                you will see it is a link. So remove it:



                rm /gluster_broken





                share|improve this answer

























                  0












                  0








                  0







                  You cant remove /gluster_broken/home becouse /gluster_broken is a broken link itself.



                  ls -l /gluster_broken


                  you will see it is a link. So remove it:



                  rm /gluster_broken





                  share|improve this answer













                  You cant remove /gluster_broken/home becouse /gluster_broken is a broken link itself.



                  ls -l /gluster_broken


                  you will see it is a link. So remove it:



                  rm /gluster_broken






                  share|improve this answer












                  share|improve this answer



                  share|improve this answer










                  answered Feb 25 at 8:07









                  xoidxoid

                  1213




                  1213



























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