# Let's look at a few pathologies surrounding symlinks.
set -x

touch file             # just an empty file
ln -s file link        # and an innocent symlink

rm file                # get rid of ‹file›, leaving the link behind
ln -s dangling badlink # we can directly create a dangling link
ls -l link badlink     # what does ‹ls› say about those?

cat badlink            # fails, no such file...
ln -s badlink dangling # let's make a loop just for fun
ls -l badlink dangling
cat badlink            # fails in a new and interesting way

rm -d link dangling badlink

# Here is another, slightly different pathology with loops:

mkdir -p dir/subdir
ln -s .. dir/subdir/link
ls dir
ls dir/subdir
ls dir/subdir/link
ls dir/subdir/link/subdir
ls dir/subdir/link/subdir/link
ls dir/subdir/link/subdir/link/subdir

rm -r dir # eww, go away ugly thing

# Let's move on to the C view of things, in ‹links.c›.