Concept of link count in linux Post: 302267019

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Operating Systems Linux Concept of link count in linux Post 302267019 by techlinux on Thursday 11th of December 2008 01:28:25 PM

12-11-2008

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There are 2 types of links; symbolic links, which refer to a symbolic path indicating the abstract location of another file, and hard links, which refer to the specific location of physical data. A Link count shows how many directory entries link to the file.
A file's link count is displayed in the second column of output from the ls -l . This number represents the total number of links that have been created to point to the data. Each time a new link is created, this value is increased by 1. When a link is removed, the value is decreased by 1. It keeps a count so when you do rm commands against a 'copy' of the file the link count gets decremented, when it reaches 0 the actual file is, finally, deleted.

Any number of hard links to physical data may be created. Links can be created by using the ln command

more info here on link counts-
http://teaching.idallen.com/cst8129/...nd_inodes.html
The Answer Guy 35: Listing "Just the Links": It's the only way, Luke

Last edited by techlinux; 12-11-2008 at 03:03 PM.. Reason: edit url

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list_link

list link(1m)															     list link(1m)

NAME

       list link - Displays a list of all the soft links whose names match the link name that you specify

SYNOPSIS

       cdscp list link link-name [with attribute-name = attribute-value]

ARGUMENTS

       The  full  name	of  a specific soft link.  The last simple name can contain wildcard characters.  The name of a particular attribute.  The
       value of a particular attribute.

DESCRIPTION

       The list link command displays a list of all the soft links whose names match the link name that you specify.  The  last  simple  name  can
       contain	wildcard  characters.	You  can  use  a  with	attribute-name	=  attribute-value clause to limit output only to soft links whose
       attributes have values equal to the specified values.  A space must precede and follow the = (equals sign).  This command does not list the
       name of the directory, object entry, or other soft link to which the soft link points.

   Privilege Required
       You  must  have	read permission to the directory that stores the soft link.  If you use a with	attribute-name = attribute-value clause in
       the command, you also need read or test permission to the selected soft links.

NOTE

       This command is replaced at Revision 1.1 by the dcecp command and may not be provided in future releases of DCE.

EXAMPLE

       The following command displays a list of all the soft links whose names begin with the letter l in the directory  /.:/admin.   cdscp>  list
       link /.:/admin/l*

			       LIST
			   SOFTLINK   /.../abc.com/admin
				 AT   1991-10-15-15:54:38 lnk01 lnk02 lnk03 lnk04 lnk05 lnk06

RELATED INFORMATION

       Commands: create link(1m), delete link(1m), remove link(1m), set link(1m), show link(1m)

																     list link(1m)