symbolic link for existing directory

Question

I am trying to change /var/log directory to symbolic link. As /var/log exists, I tried as below.

# cd /var
# mv log log.bk                             (1)
# ln -snf /path/to/somewhere/var/log log    (2)

This way does not work well because a new /var/log directory is created between (1) and (2) ( I guess some system daemon creates it ), the symbolic link is created inside /var/log directory.

# ls -l /var/log
     :
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root    23 Sep  2 13:27 log -> /path/to/somewhere/var/log
-rw-r----- 1 root adm  38028 Sep  2 13:51 messages
     :

My expecting is as below.

# ls -l /var
    :
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root    23 Sep  2 13:27 log -> /path/to/somewhere/var/log
drwxr-xr-x 8 root root  1680 Sep  2 06:25 log.bk
    :

How can I do this?

Answer 1

self resolved.

I use mount --bind instead of symbolic link.

mount --bind /path/to/somewhare/var/log log

Answer 2

If you really want to do what you say what you want to do (instead of what you settled for),

1. Try it as one command line: mv log log.bk && ln -snf /path/to/somewhere/var/log log.
2. Try it in single-user mode.