Too many levels of symbolic links Linux Origin: Platform & cloud Last updated 13 Oct 2026

Too many levels of symbolic links (ELOOP)

A symlink points to itself, directly or through a chain, so path resolution loops.

Exact message you may see Too many levels of symbolic linksELOOP: too many symbolic links encountered
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Seen on: Linux

Meaning

Usually a symlink created with a relative target from the wrong directory (ln -s file file) or two links pointing at each other; also broken NFS/autofs mounts.

Common causes

  • Symlink created with the same source and destination
  • Relative target resolved from the link’s directory, not your current one
  • Circular links between directories
  • NFS/autofs mount loops

⚡ Quick fix

  1. Inspect: ls -l and readlink -f
  2. Recreate with an absolute target: ln -sfn /abs/path link
  3. Remove the circular link

Detailed fix by platform

Linux

  1. bash
    ls -l /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/
namei -l /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/site.conf
sudo ln -sfn /etc/nginx/sites-available/site.conf /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/site.conf

How to diagnose

  1. Chain — namei -l path
  2. Target — Absolute or relative?

🔧 Still not fixed?

Many errors look alike. If the steps above didn’t solve it, one of these is probably what you’re facing:

Where this error sits

Origin: Platform & cloud. Errors that are often confused with or caused by this one (click to open):

0x80070020 — 0x80070020: The process cannot access the file because it is being used by another process (Windows)0x800700200x80070570 — Error 0x80070570: The file or directory is corrupted and unreadable (Windows)0x80070570Access to the path is denied — System.UnauthorizedAccessException: Access to the path 'x' is denied (.NET)Access to the path is…AccessDeniedException — java.nio.file.AccessDeniedException: /path (Java)AccessDeniedExceptionArgument list too long — bash: /bin/rm: Argument list too long (Linux)Argument list too longEACCES — Linux: Permission denied (Linux)EACCESNo space left on device (inodes) — No space left on device, but df shows free space (inodes exhausted) (Linux)No space left on devi…Read-only file system — Read-only file system (EROFS) — cannot write to disk (Linux)Read-only file systemToo many …

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