Why does an error occur when creating a symbolic link?

Question

linux

Hello!

I'm trying to create a symbolic link, but I'm getting the following error:

ln: failed to create symbolic link '/etc/nginx/sites-enabled/doroshchenko.xyz.conf': File exists

What I did before:
1) created folders with configs

mkdir -p /etc/nginx/sites-available/
mkdir -p /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/

2) edited the config:

nano /etc/nginx/sites-available/doroshchenko.xyz.conf

3) trying to do:

ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/doroshchenko.xyz.conf /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/

And I get an error:

ln: failed to create symbolic link '/etc/nginx/sites-enabled/doroshchenko.xyz.conf': File exists

Why is this happening and how to fix it?

Answer 1

Do you already have the /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/doroshchenko.xyz.conf file at the time of running the symbolic link command? As if there is, you need to add the -f option to the command if you want it so that if a file with the same name already exists, it will be overwritten.

Answer 2

It happens because of two dots or when links are placed incorrectly in places. Moreover, he informs you that the link, they say, already exists.
Tried --force, with an explicit indication.
ln -sf /etc/nginx/sites-available/doroshchenko.xyz.conf /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/doroshchenko.xyz.conf