07-10-2007
Hope this helps:
Soft Link:
-------------
- Soft links are links to a file but not the inode.
- Created using
ln -s file1 file2
=> ls -il
131135 lrwxrwxrwx 1 user user 5 Jul 10 09:04 file2 -> file1
131137 -rw-r--r-- 1 user user 35 Jul 10 09:03 file1
- The inode for file1 is 131137 and inode for file2 is 131135.
- If you see the permission bits, there is 'l' in the front for a soft link.
- If file1 is deleted, the link still exists. But if you try to view file2, its empty. This means that once the main file is deleted the data is gone.
Hard Link:
--------------
- Hard links are links to inode
- Created using
ln file1 file2
=> ls -il
131136 -rw-r--r-- 2 user user 48 Jul 10 09:27 file1
131136 -rw-r--r-- 2 user user 48 Jul 10 09:27 file2
- The inode for file1 and file2 is the same (131136).
- If you see the output above for "ls -i", file2 does not show that it is linked to file1. In reality it is not linked to file1 but it is linked to the inode.
- If you see that there is number '2' before the username 'user'. This shows the number of hard links to the inode.
- If file1 is deleted, the data is not deleted. If you view file2 the data is still there. Deleting file1 only deletes a link. The data is gone once the last hard link is deleted.
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ln(1) General Commands Manual ln(1)
Name
ln - link to a file
Syntax
ln [ -f ] [ -i ] [ -s ] name1 [name2]
ln [ -f ] [ -i ] [ -s ] name ... directory
Description
A link is a directory entry referring to a file. A file, together with its size and all its protection information may have several links
to it. There are two kinds of links: hard links and symbolic links.
By default makes hard links. A hard link to a file is indistinguishable from the original directory entry. Any changes to a file are
effective independent of the name used to reference the file. Hard links may not span file systems and may not refer to directories.
Given one or two arguments, creates a link to an existing file name1. If name2 is given, the link has that name. The name2 may also be a
directory in which to place the link. Otherwise it is placed in the current directory. If only the directory is specified, the link is
made to the last component of name1.
Given more than two arguments, makes links to all the named files in the named directory. The links made have the same name as the files
being linked to.
Options
-f Forces existing destination pathnames to be removed before linking without prompting for confirmation.
-i Write a prompt to standard output requesting information for each link that would overwrite an existing file. If the response from
standard input is affirmative, and if permissions allow, the link is done. The -i option has this effect even if the standard input is
not a terminal.
-s Creates a symbolic link.
A symbolic link contains the name of the file to which it is linked. The referenced file is used when an operation is performed on
the link. A on a symbolic link returns the linked-to file. An must be done to obtain information about the link. The call may be
used to read the contents of a symbolic link. Symbolic links may span file systems and may refer to directories.
See Also
cp(1), mv(1), rm(1), link(2), readlink(2), stat(2), symlink(2)
ln(1)