El Capitan won't let you create the path in one go (it gives file name too long), but you can create it incrementally: sh-3.2# pwd /private/var/root/1.../2

El Capitan won't let you create the path in one go (it gives file name too long), but you can create it incrementally: sh-3.2# pwd /private/var/root/1.../2.../3.../4... sh-3.2# ln -s /var/root/ftw L sh-3.2# rm L rm: L: No space left on device