How can I break a symbolic link loop?

Question

While I was trying to compile a C shared object library, I accidentally created two symbolic links which point to each other. Is there a way to get rid of them without nuking the whole directory? I read that the only way to break a symbolic link is to delete the file it points to, but I'm sure there must be another way. Thanks for the help.

Answer 1

It's not a problem to delete symbolic links. I'm not sure why you think that you need to delete the file the link points to.

Just delete them. Try this:

ln -s thing1 thing2   # thing1 does not exist
ln -s thing2 thing1   # circular reference
rm thing1 thing2      # no problem

Answer 2

Nevermind, I can delete both links simultaneously with rm. Why did someone say I had to delete the target file...

Answer 3

When you delete a symbolic link in Linux, the link is deleted and not the target file.