You have an explanation about hard links and soft links wiyh directories.

An explanation with files could be:

A file is referenced in the system by a i-node number, when you create a
file, the OS assign an i-node number to the file_name.
example:

a- create a file "pp"
echo "hard_soft_link_inode?" >> pp

b- list the file
ls -l pp
-rw-r--r-- 1 root system 22 May 07 18:39 pp
The number 1 is the number of hard links that the file has.

c- view the i-node number of pp assigned by the system:
ls -i pp
24 pp
the 24 number is the i-node number


d- when you make a hard link, the count of i-nodes of the file
is increased by 1 (and when you unlink the the hard link the number
is decreased by 1):

ln pp hard_link_to_pp
ln pp hard_link2_to_pp
ls -l pp
-rw-r--r-- 3 root system 22 May 07 18:39 pp

ls -i hard_link_to_pp
24 hard_link_to_pp

ls -i hard_link2_to_pp
24 hard_link_to_pp


if you remove the original file (you can access the file content by the
hard link)
rm pp

cat hard_link_to_pp
hard_soft_link_inode?

when you use the unlink command the i-node count decrease by 1:
unlink hard_link_to_pp
ls -l hard_link2_to_pp
-rw-r--r-- 1 root system 22 May 07 18:39 hard_link2_to_pp

if you unlink/rm again you lost the file.

Note: I prefer to use the unlink command over a hard link over the rm command.


The soft link is a pointer that could be point to nothing, to a file in the
same FS, or to a file in other FS (recommended use). To create a soft link
you need to use the "-s" flag of the "ln command".

A common use of hard links is some scripts in the rcX.d (X=1,2,3,S) that
are associated to files in the init.d directory. Use the "ls -i" in rc3.d and in the
init.d directories.

Good luck with your test, and sorry with my poor english.