Problem creating symbolic link to executable

[emustrangler]

I have an executable in an obscure directory. I want to put a link to it in /usr/local/bin. So I make a link with "sudo ln -s". But then trying to run the program from the command line fails, despite /usr/lcoal/bin being in my $PATH list. The command "which" fails to find it as well.

Going to /usr/local/bin and running ls -l, the links are there but are red colored outlined in grey. Googling, this apparently means they are links that are to "unstatable" files. I don't know what that means, though.

Running the program works if I put in the pathname to the original, obscure directory that the actual executable sits in, so I'm pretty sure its not a problem with the actual program.

What's going on?

[sudodus]

I have an executable in an obscure directory. I want to put a link to it in /usr/local/bin. So I make a link with "sudo ln -s". But then trying to run the program from the command line fails, despite /usr/lcoal/bin being in my $PATH list. The command "which" fails to find it as well.

Going to /usr/local/bin and running ls -l, the links are there but are red colored outlined in grey. Googling, this apparently means they are links that are to "unstatable" files. I don't know what that means, though.

Running the program works if I put in the pathname to the original, obscure directory that the actual executable sits in, so I'm pretty sure its not a problem with the actual program.

What's going on?

Please post the output of

ls -l

to show the file permissions of the executable itself as well as the link in /usr/local/bin

[LewisTM]

Did you make the link specifying full pathnames?

sudo ln -s /<full>/<path>/<to>/<file> /usr/local/bin

If not the link will be relative (e.g ./<file>) and won't point to anything useful when placed in /usr/local/bin

Cheers!

[emustrangler]

Did you make the link specifying full pathnames?

sudo ln -s /<full>/<path>/<to>/<file> /usr/local/bin

If not the link will be relative (e.g ./<file>) and won't point to anything useful when placed in /usr/local/bin

Cheers!

This was the problem. I didn't realize ln didn't understand relative pathnames for the targets. Thanks.