Can any one explain me about Soft link n Hard Link in Linux

[vasu1308]

Hi

I want to about Soft link and Hard Link in Linux.

Thanks
Vasu

[drhowarddrfine]

A hard link is a file that points to the actual inode of a file. You can think of it like the actual name of the file in that file system. A soft link is like a Windows shortcut pointing to the same file. While you can delete a "shortcut", or soft link, without deleting the file, deleting a hard link will remove the inode and, thus, the file from the system.

[vasu1308]

Hi,

Thank you

Vasu

A hard link is a file that points to the actual inode of a file. You can think of it like the actual name of the file in that file system. A soft link is like a Windows shortcut pointing to the same file. While you can delete a "shortcut", or soft link, without deleting the file, deleting a hard link will remove the inode and, thus, the file from the system.

[DevinC]

Hm interesting... is there an appropriate term to identify the type of shortcut file.
1) One that use absolute path to point to the actual file
2) Another using relative path (i.e. drive letter will vary as both shortcuts and actual files are on the same removable media)?

Thanks,

Devin

[drhowarddrfine]

Hm interesting... is there an appropriate term to identify the type of shortcut file.
1) One that use absolute path to point to the actual file
2) Another using relative path (i.e. drive letter will vary as both shortcuts and actual files are on the same removable media)?

Thanks,

Devin

No but you can tell by doing ls -l and you'll see it listed with a right arrow pointing at the file, such as: mylink -> thefile. That's a soft link.