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Whenever I attempt to cd my Downloads folder to run a C# program that I have written, I keep getting this message. When I try moving the file to snap and/or socket (the only two which are responding to the cd command), it does not appear there. How do I fix the issue with "too many levels of symbolic links"?

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root@LAPTOP-040SRHIO:~# cd Downloads
-bash: cd: Downloads: Too many levels of symbolic links
root@LAPTOP-040SRHIO:~# ls
Desktop Documents Downloads Music Pictures Public snap socket Templates Videos
root@LAPTOP-040SRHIO:~# cd Downloads
-bash: cd: Downloads: Too many levels of symbolic links
root@LAPTOP-040SRHIO:~#
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    ls -l Downloads might help show what is going on
    – thrig
    Sep 10, 2022 at 2:25
  • Please don't post images of text. Copy and paste the text itself into your question and format it as code by selecting it and pressing Ctrl-K or by using the editor's {} icon.
    – cas
    Sep 10, 2022 at 3:09
  • @cas, very true, though here the colours give us an additional clue that all symlinks are broken, not just Downloads.
    – Stéphane Chazelas
    Sep 10, 2022 at 8:38
  • Don't login as root, the root account is only to perform privilege administrative tasks. The root user having things like personal Downloads, Music, Videos directory is an aberration.
    – Stéphane Chazelas
    Sep 10, 2022 at 8:40

1 Answer 1

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Downloads is probably a symlink to itself. Or to another symlink that points back to Downloads, or a longer chain of symlinks that also results in an effectively infinite chain of symlinks pointing to each other. e.g.

$ ln -s Downloads Downloads
$ ls -lF Downloads 
lrwxrwxrwx 1 cas cas 9 Sep 10 13:10 Downloads -> Downloads
$ cd Downloads 
-bash: cd: Downloads: Too many levels of symbolic links

The solution is "Don't do that". Either delete the Downloads symlink or re-create it to point to somewhere that exists.

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