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 -F you 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