Modifying a symlink in python
Solution 1:
If you need an atomic modification, unlinking won't work.
A better solution would be to create a new temporary symlink, and then rename it over the existing one:
os.symlink(target, tmpLink)
os.rename(tmpLink, linkName)
You can check to make sure it was updated correctly too:
if os.path.realpath(linkName) == target:
# Symlink was updated
According to the documentation for os.rename though, there may be no way to atomically change a symlink in Windows. In that case, you would just delete and re-create.
Solution 2:
A little function for Python2 which tries to symlink and if it fails because of an existing file, it removes it and links again. Check [Tom Hale's answer] for a up-to-date solution.
import os, errno
def symlink_force(target, link_name):
try:
os.symlink(target, link_name)
except OSError, e:
if e.errno == errno.EEXIST:
os.remove(link_name)
os.symlink(target, link_name)
else:
raise e
For python3 except
condition should be except OSError as e:
[Tom Hale's answer]: https://stackoverflow.com/a/55742015/825924