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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)