Code 9: Creating and using Symlinks

1. The Problem and the Symlink Use-Case

When starting new projects, I want the least amount of friction from set-up to development:

• I’ve heard of symlink before but never used them.
  • After googling, looks like a perfect use-case.
• I noticed I am reusing or updating previous functions and processes from previous projects and
  • Resulting in a tony_files folder that I always use at initialisation (of projects).
• Rather than:
  1. Copying the set of tony_files manually each time to every new project,
  2. Then save and update all changes to these copy of files as I work on a project.
  3. Then copy these files to replace the original files (so I can use these updated files for the next new project)
• I can now simply create a symlink once to these original tony_files and whenever I update/save them, the originals reference files are automatically updated (removing step 2. and 3. above completely)!

2. How to Create a Symlink

2.1 Check existing Symlinks in Linux/Ubuntu (Optional):

• A symlink is represented with ->:

ls -l /path/to/symlink

2.2 Check existing Symlinks in Visual Studio Code (Optional):

• The same symlink is represented by down-then-right-arrow (reverse L):

2.3 Delete existing Symlinks (Optional):

rm /path/to/symlink

2.4 Create a new Symlink

ln -s /path/to/original/file.md /chosen/path/for/symlink/file.md

2.5 Check existing Symlink

See the symlink has been established again.

ls -l

3. (Bonus) Create Multiple Symlinks [Quick-Fire mode]

3.1 How-To

1. Check files in working directory (wd): ll (If symlink existing, it wont be overriden, delete it if required)
2. Check files in original directory (ogdir): ll ~/og_files
   
3. Move files required for symlinks: mv tony_* ~/og_files
4. Check files no longer in wd: ll
5. Check files are in ogdir: ll ~/og_files
6. For Loop: create symlinks for files prefixed with tony_ to wd: for file in ~/og_files/tony_*; do ln -s $file .; done
7. Check files in wd: ll
8. Looks all good!

3.2 The Code

ll
ll ~/og_files
mv tony_* ~/og_files
ll
ll ~/og_files
for file in ~/og_files/tony_*; do ln -s $file .; done
ll

3.3 Screenshot of How-To and Code