Question

if (-e "$ENV{MYHOME}/link") {
    system("rm $ENV{MYHOME}/link");
}

This is the code being used to check if a symlink exists and remove it if it does.

I am tracking a bug where this code does not work. I have not been able to figure it out as of now, but what is happening is that this code is unable to remove the symlink, which results in a ‘File exists’ error down the line.

I wanted to check if there is some fundamental flaw with this technique? I also read about http://perldoc.perl.org/functions/unlink.html but would like to know if the current approach is not recommended due to some reason?

Answer 1

Just use:

if ( -l "$ENV{MYHOME}/link" ) {
    unlink "$ENV{MYHOME}/link"
        or die "Failed to remove file $ENV{MYHOME}/link: $!\n";
}

If the unlink fails, it’ll say why. The -l asks if the target is a link. The -e asks if the file exists. If your link is to a non-existent file, it’ll return false, and your code would fail to remove the link.