SYMLINK(7)						     Linux Programmer's Manual							SYMLINK(7)

NAME

       symlink - symbolic link handling

SYMBOLIC LINK HANDLING

       Symbolic links are files that act as pointers to other files.  To understand their behavior, you must first understand how hard links work.

       A hard link to a file is indistinguishable from the original file because it is a reference to the object underlying the original filename.
       (To be precise: each of the hard links to a file is a reference to the same i-node number, where an i-node number is an index into  the	i-
       node table, which contains metadata about all files on a file system.  See stat(2).)  Changes to a file are independent of the name used to
       reference the file.  Hard links may not refer to directories (to prevent the possibility of loops within the file system tree, which  would
       confuse many programs) and may not refer to files on different file systems (because i-node numbers are not unique across file systems).

       A symbolic link is a special type of file whose contents are a string that is the pathname another file, the file to which the link refers.
       In other words, a symbolic link is a pointer to another name, and not to an underlying object.  For this reason, symbolic links	may  refer
       to directories and may cross file system boundaries.

       There is no requirement that the pathname referred to by a symbolic link should exist.  A symbolic link that refers to a pathname that does
       not exist is said to be a dangling link.

       Because a symbolic link and its referenced object coexist in the file system name space, confusion can arise in distinguishing between  the
       link  itself and the referenced object.	On historical systems, commands and system calls adopted their own link-following conventions in a
       somewhat ad-hoc fashion.  Rules for a more uniform approach, as they are implemented on Linux and other systems, are outlined here.  It	is
       important that site-local applications also conform to these rules, so that the user interface can be as consistent as possible.

   Symbolic link ownership, permissions, and timestamps
       The  owner and group of an existing symbolic link can be changed using lchown(2).  The only time that the ownership of a symbolic link mat-
       ters is when the link is being removed or renamed in a directory that has the sticky bit set (see stat(2)).

       The last access and last modification timestamps of a symbolic link can be changed using utimensat(2) or lutimes(3).

       On Linux, the permissions of a symbolic link are not used in any operations; the permissions are always 0777 (read, write, and execute  for
       all user categories), and can't be changed.

   Handling of symbolic links by system calls and commands
       Symbolic  links	are  handled either by operating on the link itself, or by operating on the object referred to by the link.  In the latter
       case, an application or system call is said to follow the link.	Symbolic links may refer to other symbolic links, in which case the  links
       are dereferenced until an object that is not a symbolic link is found, a symbolic link that refers to a file which does not exist is found,
       or a loop is detected.  (Loop detection is done by placing an upper limit on the number of links that may be followed, and an error results
       if this limit is exceeded.)

       There are three separate areas that need to be discussed.  They are as follows:

       1. Symbolic links used as filename arguments for system calls.

       2. Symbolic links specified as command-line arguments to utilities that are not traversing a file tree.

       3. Symbolic  links encountered by utilities that are traversing a file tree (either specified on the command line or encountered as part of
	  the file hierarchy walk).

   System calls
       The first area is symbolic links used as filename arguments for system calls.

       Except as noted below, all system calls follow symbolic links.  For example, if there were a symbolic link slink which pointed  to  a  file
       named afile, the system call open("slink" ...) would return a file descriptor referring to the file afile.

       Various	system calls do not follow links, and operate on the symbolic link itself.  They are: lchown(2), lgetxattr(2), llistxattr(2), lre-
       movexattr(2), lsetxattr(2), lstat(2), readlink(2), rename(2), rmdir(2), and unlink(2).  Certain other system calls optionally  follow  sym-
       bolic  links.  They are: faccessat(2), fchownat(2), fstatat(2), linkat(2), open(2), openat(2), and utimensat(2); see their manual pages for
       details.  Because remove(3) is an alias for unlink(2), that library function also does not follow symbolic links.  When rmdir(2) is applied
       to  a symbolic link, it fails with the error ENOTDIR.  The link(2) warrants special discussion.	POSIX.1-2001 specifies that link(2) should
       dereference oldpath if it is a symbolic link.  However, Linux does not do this.	(By default Solaris is	the  same,  but  the  POSIX.1-2001
       specified  behavior  can  be  obtained  with  suitable compiler options.)  The upcoming POSIX.1 revision changes the specification to allow
       either behavior in an implementation.

   Commands not traversing a file tree
       The second area is symbolic links, specified as command-line filename arguments, to commands which are not traversing a file tree.

       Except as noted below, commands follow symbolic links named as command-line arguments.  For example, if there were a  symbolic  link  slink
       which pointed to a file named afile, the command cat slink would display the contents of the file afile.

       It  is  important  to  realize  that  this rule includes commands which may optionally traverse file trees, e.g., the command chown file is
       included in this rule, while the command chown -R file, which performs a tree traversal, is not.  (The latter is  described  in	the  third
       area, below.)

       If it is explicitly intended that the command operate on the symbolic link instead of following the symbolic link, e.g., it is desired that
       chown slink change the ownership of the file that slink is, whether it is a symbolic link or not, the -h option should  be  used.   In  the
       above  example,	chown  root  slink would change the ownership of the file referred to by slink, while chown -h root slink would change the
       ownership of slink itself.

       There are some exceptions to this rule:

       * The mv(1) and rm(1) commands do not follow symbolic links named as arguments, but respectively attempt to rename and delete them.  (Note,
	 if  the symbolic link references a file via a relative path, moving it to another directory may very well cause it to stop working, since
	 the path may no longer be correct.)

       * The ls(1) command is also an exception to this rule.  For compatibility with historic systems (when ls(1) is not doing a tree walk, i.e.,
	 the  -R  option is not specified), the ls(1) command follows symbolic links named as arguments if the -H or -L option is specified, or if
	 the -F, -d, or -l options are not specified.  (The ls(1) command is the only command where the -H and -L options affect its behavior even
	 though it is not doing a walk of a file tree.)

       * The  file(1) command is also an exception to this rule.  The file(1) command does not follow symbolic links named as argument by default.
	 The file(1) command does follow symbolic links named as argument if the -L option is specified.

   Commands traversing a file tree
       The following commands either optionally or always traverse file trees: chgrp(1), chmod(1), chown(1), cp(1), du(1), find(1), ls(1), pax(1),
       rm(1), and tar(1).

       It is important to realize that the following rules apply equally to symbolic links encountered during the file tree traversal and symbolic
       links listed as command-line arguments.

       The first rule applies to symbolic links that reference files other than directories.  Operations that apply to	symbolic  links  are  per-
       formed on the links themselves, but otherwise the links are ignored.

       The  command rm -r slink directory will remove slink, as well as any symbolic links encountered in the tree traversal of directory, because
       symbolic links may be removed.  In no case will rm(1) affect the file referred to by slink.

       The second rule applies to symbolic links that refer to directories.  Symbolic links that  refer  to  directories  are  never  followed	by
       default.  This is often referred to as a "physical" walk, as opposed to a "logical" walk (where symbolic links the refer to directories are
       followed).

       Certain conventions are (should be) followed as consistently as possible by commands that perform file tree walks:

       * A command can be made to follow any symbolic links named on the command line, regardless of the type of file they reference, by  specify-
	 ing  the  -H  (for  "half-logical")  flag.   This  flag is intended to make the command-line name space look like the logical name space.
	 (Note, for commands that do not always do file tree traversals, the -H flag will be ignored if the -R flag is not also specified.)

	 For example, the command chown -HR user slink will traverse the file hierarchy rooted in the file pointed to by slink.  Note, the  -H	is
	 not the same as the previously discussed -h flag.  The -H flag causes symbolic links specified on the command line to be dereferenced for
	 the purposes of both the action to be performed and the tree walk, and it is as if the user had specified the name of the file  to  which
	 the symbolic link pointed.

       * A  command  can be made to follow any symbolic links named on the command line, as well as any symbolic links encountered during the tra-
	 versal, regardless of the type of file they reference, by specifying the -L (for "logical") flag.  This flag  is  intended  to  make  the
	 entire  name space look like the logical name space.  (Note, for commands that do not always do file tree traversals, the -L flag will be
	 ignored if the -R flag is not also specified.)

	 For example, the command chown -LR user slink will change the owner of the file referred to by slink.	If slink refers  to  a	directory,
	 chown will traverse the file hierarchy rooted in the directory that it references.  In addition, if any symbolic links are encountered in
	 any file tree that chown traverses, they will be treated in the same fashion as slink.

       * A command can be made to provide the default behavior by specifying the -P (for "physical") flag.  This flag  is  intended  to  make  the
	 entire name space look like the physical name space.

       For commands that do not by default do file tree traversals, the -H, -L, and -P flags are ignored if the -R flag is not also specified.	In
       addition, you may specify the -H, -L, and -P options more than once; the last one specified determines the  command's  behavior.   This	is
       intended to permit you to alias commands to behave one way or the other, and then override that behavior on the command line.

       The ls(1) and rm(1) commands have exceptions to these rules:

       * The  rm(1) command operates on the symbolic link, and not the file it references, and therefore never follows a symbolic link.  The rm(1)
	 command does not support the -H, -L, or -P options.

       * To maintain compatibility with historic systems, the ls(1) command acts a little differently.	If you do not specify the  -F,	-d  or	-l
	 options,  ls(1) will follow symbolic links specified on the command line.  If the -L flag is specified, ls(1) follows all symbolic links,
	 regardless of their type, whether specified on the command line or encountered in the tree walk.

SEE ALSO

       chgrp(1), chmod(1), find(1), ln(1), ls(1), mv(1), rm(1), lchown(2), link(2), lstat(2), readlink(2), rename(2), symlink(2), unlink(2),  uti-
       mensat(2), lutimes(3), path_resolution(7)

COLOPHON

       This  page is part of release 3.53 of the Linux man-pages project.  A description of the project, and information about reporting bugs, can
       be found at http://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/.

Linux								    2008-06-18								SYMLINK(7)