bash: cd: mysql: no such file or directory

[twhitehouse]

I was setting up a soft link in linux. Here were the steps I followed:

> groupadd mysql
> useradd -g mysql mysql
> cd /usr/local
> gunzip /home/Tim/Download/mysql.....gz | tar xvf -
> ln -s /usr/local/mysql.... mysql

I can see the mysql folder in the /usr/local folder. I could even set permissions on it by doing the following:

> chown -R mysql .
> chgrp -R mysql .

However, when I try to cd mysql into the mysql soft link, I am told that there is not such file or directory. It is colored red in the file list with a black background when I do a ls - l.

Any ideas as to why I cannot cd into mysql ?
> cd mysql

[hugortega]

A red-colored entry on a terminal usually means a broken symbolic link (unless you have a different color schema) ...

A broken symlink is due to the bad relative path... what command did you use exactly to create the link?

[twhitehouse]

This is from the "install-binary" file that was in the mysql download from the mysql site.

The command was:

ln -s /usr/local/mysql-5.1.41-linux-i686-glib23 mysql

I also tried

ln -s /usr/local/mysql-5.1.41-lilnux-i686-glib23 ./mysql

Both of them left the red colored link.

What was strange was that I could do chgrp on the soft link and there was no error.

Anyways, I just found that I can install mysql straight from Fedora. I did not know that. So, my issue has been solved in an indirect way. It still would be nice to know what I did incorrectly for the future however.

Thanks for your help!

[coopstah13]

i find it best to use absolute paths only when dealing with symbolic links, it usually eliminates problems like these.

[twhitehouse]

That makes sense. I guess I should have used more than one brain cell instead of copying line by line out of the instructions.

[hugortega]

Absolute paths are not always the best solution, specially when you want to move packages or complete folders into other locations (this is not the case)

Anyway, an alternate solution:

$ cd /usr/local
$ sudo ln -sf mysql-5.1.41-linux-i686-glib23 mysql

and that should work without problems.