Question

6

What is "link to executable"?

rated 0 times [ 6] [ 0] / answers: 1 / hits: 14905 / 2 Years ago, wed, june 1, 2022, 9:45:05

What is "link to executable" ? I'm trying to understand what "gcc" is. If I open Properties of it in Unity UI it says "link to executable".

I googled it. Tried following commands

link
readlink
ln

I'm confused. What command I should use in order to:

check whether file is link or not

view where link points to

change destination of a link (I need to repoint gcc to gcc 4.7 in my case)

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3 Years ago

answered 2 Years ago taigysel · Accepted Answer

Yes, it is a symbolic link, created with the ln command. To replace the link, you need to do

sudo ln -sf /usr/bin/gcc-4.7 /usr/bin/gcc

or

sudo ln -sf `which gcc` `which gcc-4.7`

The -s is for symbolic (otherwise you will get a "hard link"), -f is for "force", because the target already exists.

I assume that you do have gcc-4.7 installed, and that there is a binary in /usr/bin called "gcc-4.7". Ootherwise you will only break your existing link.