How to Create Symbolic Links ( Soft Link or Hard Link) in Linux/Unix

How to Create Symbolic Links in Linux/Unix

Understanding shortcuts or links is a piece of cake. Most of us have already did that on Windows. Some of us have even tried creating links on Linux. A link in Linux is presented with an arrow -> that points to the target or original file. A link is nothing more than a way of matching two or more file names to the same set of files data.

There are two types of links available in Linux -

1.  Soft Link
2.  Hard Link

	Soft Link	Hard Link
1	Size of link file is equal to no. of characters in the name of original file	Size of both file is same
2	Can be created across the Partition	Can’t be created across the partitions
3	Inode no. of source and link file is different.	Inode No. of both file is same
4	If original file is deleted, link is broken and data is lost	If original file is deleted then also link will contain data.
5	Shortcut File	Backup File

In Linux ln command is used to create either soft or hard links.

This article explains how to create soft link, how to create hard link:

Creating a Soft Link:

Symbolic links are simple to create. The syntax for creating a symbolic link from command line is:

Create a Soft link for a File

The following examples shows a Soft link.

# ln –s <source file> <destination file name>

[root@rahul ~]# ln -s file1 file1.softli [root@rahul ~]# ls -li file1 file1.softli 9466 -rw-r--r--. 1 root root 76 Aug 24 17:51 file1 9502 lrwxrwxrwx. 1 root root  5 Sep 15 20:38 file1.softli -> file1 [root@rahul ~]#

Create a Soft link for a Directory

Just like file, you can create Soft link for directories as shown below.

# ln –s <source dir> <destination dir name>

[root@rahul ~]# ln -s /home/rahul/dir directory [root@rahul ~]# ls -l directory lrwxrwxrwx 1 rahul rahul       6 2016-09-15 16:48 directory -> /home/rahul/dir

Creating a Hard Link:

The inode number for the hard linked files would be same. The hard link for files can be created as follows:

# ln <source file > <destination file name>

[root@rahul ~]# ln file1 file1.hardli [root@rahul ~]# ls -li file1 file1.hardli 9466 -rw-r--r--. 2 root root 76 Aug 24 17:51 file1 9466 -rw-r--r--. 2 root root 76 Aug 24 17:51 file1.hardli [root@rahul ~]#

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