Soft links
- Pointers to programs, files, or directories located elsewhere (just like Windows shortcuts)
- If the original program, file, or directory is renamed, moved, or deleted, the soft link is broken.
- If you type
ls -Fyou can see which files are soft links because they end with@ - To create a soft link called myfilelink.txt that points to a file called myfile.txt, use this:
ln -s myfile.txt myfilelink.txt
Hard links
- Pointers to programs and files, but NOT directories
- If the original program or file is renamed, moved, or deleted, the hard link is NOT broken
- Hard links cannot span disk drives, so you CANNOT have a hard link on /dev/hdb that refers to a program or file on /dev/hda
- To create a hard link called myhardlink.txt that points to a file called myfile.txt, use this:
ln myfile.txt myhardlink.txt