script to copy, delete and symlink

Question

I want to copy a file to another disk, when completed delete it, and create a symlink back to it in the original location.

example: copyandlink.sh somefile.iso

#!/bin/bash
set -e
cp $1 /media/storage/linked/ &&
rm $1 &&
ln -s /media/storage/linked/$1 ./

or something like that.

You do know that hard links cannot work across devices, don't you? — AlexP, Jan 2 '17 at 0:39
Since the current question is impossible to answer, as pointed out by AlexP, you can either change it to use soft links or similar alternatives, or delete it. — Julie Pelletier, Jan 2 '17 at 4:48
Maybe this is as good as it gets, but it is not very elegant. I thought there would be a better, more robust way. — jakethedog, Jan 3 '17 at 6:10

Julie Pelletier · Accepted Answer · 2017-01-04 04:11:39Z

You're on the right track since your script does exactly what you want.

It can be simplified and improved a little like:

#!/bin/bash
mv $1 /media/storage/linked/ &&
ln -s /media/storage/linked/$1 .

The set -e has no impact since your commands are already conditional with the &&.

I also replaced the cp and rm for mv which handles both automatically, whether on the same partition or not.

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