UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

Is it possible to assign a symbolic link to a network folder, without that folder being mounted?

Thanks!

The content of a symbolic link is a string. When the symbolic link is encountered while traversing a pathname, you will get an error if that string (when incorporated into the pathname being evaluated) doesn't resolve to a file of the type expected for the operation being performed. There is no requirement that the contents of the symbolic link can be used to access a file at the time the symbolic link is created.

If a symbolic link is not used in pathname expansion, you can use use readlink() (the function), readlink (the utility [not available on all systems]), or ls (the utility with the -l option), to read the contents of the symbolic link when it is not being used for its normal purpose.