ln command (hard and symbolic links)

[Dan Lund]

A hard link is a link which cannot go across filesystems, and is a
pointer inside of the filesystem to another files inode.  When you
create a hard link, what you are effectively doing is:
1) creating a link to another file
2) increasing the original files "link count" by 1.

Effectively, you can remove the original file and it will still be
accessible through the hard link.  Once all hardlinks to the file are
removed, the file disappears from the filesystem.

A soft link is equivalent to a shortcut in windows, and can go across
filesystems.


On Nov 9, 2007 12:38 PM, keith smith <klsmith2020 at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> Hi everyone,
>
> I'm needing to share some files between two hosting accounts and am looking
> at creating a few symbolic links.
>
> In reading the man page for ln it says it creates a hard link by default or
> I can use --symbolic to create a symbolic link.
>
> What is the difference between a hard link and a symbolic link and why would
> I want to use one over the other?
>
> Thanks a bunch in advance for your help.
>
> Keith
>
>
> ------------------------
> Keith Smith
> (480) 584-4772
> PHP Programming
>
>
>
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-- 
Thanks,
Dan Lund

"It is our business to competently administrate value-added methods of
empowerment so that we may endeavor to completely engineer inexpensive
solutions"