From glen@delfi.ee Wed Oct 26 22:49:25 2005
From: Elan =?iso-8859-1?q?Ruusam=E4e?= <glen@delfi.ee>
To: bug-coreutils@gnu.org
Subject: confusing error message from ln
Date: Wed, 26 Oct 2005 22:49:25 +0300
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ln: creating symbolic link `/inexistent2/path2' to `/inexistent1/path1': No 
such file or directory

without knowing the issued command, this leads to believe that ln tried to 
create entry "path1" inside directory "/inexistent1", thus writing the 
symlink itself there.

the confusing part is "creating link to PATHNAME".

btw, it is not so confusing in et_EE locale:
ln: luues nimeviidet `/inexistent2/path2' -> `/inexistent1/path1': No such 
file or directory

suggested change:
ln: creating symbolic link `/inexistent2/path2' (pointing to 
`/inexistent1/path1'): No such file or directory

or remove the symlink destination from error message:
ln: creating symbolic link `/inexistent2/path2': No such file or directory

as it's really irrelevant where the created symlink points, ie it can't be 
reason of error message.

-- 
glen