symlink(4)						     Kernel Interfaces Manual							symlink(4)

NAME

       symlink - symbolic link

DESCRIPTION

       A symbolic (or soft ) link is a file whose name indirectly refers (points) to a relative or absolute path name.

       During  path  name  interpretation,  a symbolic link to a relative path name is expanded to the path name being interpreted, and a symbolic
       link to an absolute path name is replaced with the path name being interpreted.

       Thus, given the path name

	      If is a symbolic link to a relative path name such as the path name is interpreted as

	      If is a symbolic link to an absolute path name such as the path name is interpreted as

       All symbolic links are interpreted in this manner, with one exception: when the symbolic link is the last component of a path name,  it	is
       passed  as  a  parameter  to  one of the system calls: or (see readlink(2), rename(2), symlink(2), unlink(2), chown(2) and lstat(2)).  With
       these calls, the symbolic link, itself, is accessed or affected.

       Unlike normal (hard) links, a symbolic link can refer to any arbitrary path name and can span different logical devices (volumes).

       The path name can be that of any type of file (including a directory or another symbolic link), and may be invalid if no such  path  exists
       in  the	system.   (It is possible to make symbolic links point to themselves or other symbolic links in such a way that they form a closed
       loop.  The system detects this situation by limiting the number of symbolic links it traverses while translating a path name.)

       The mode and ownership of a symbolic link is ignored by the system, which means that affects the actual file, but not the  file	containing
       the symbolic link (see chmod(1)).

       Symbolic links can be created using or (see ln(1) and symlink(2)).

AUTHOR

       was developed by HP and the University of California, Berkeley.

SEE ALSO

       cp(1), symlink(2), readlink(2), link(2), stat(2), mknod(1M).

																	symlink(4)