Hard link and Symbolic links in Unix

Posted by darkie15 on Stack Overflow See other posts from Stack Overflow or by darkie15
Published on 2010-05-11T06:03:03Z Indexed on 2010/05/11 6:04 UTC
Read the original article Hit count: 358

Filed under:

unix

|

hardlink

|

softlink

Hi All,

I just wanted to clarify if a hard/symbolic link is actually a file that is created ??

I ran the command:

ln source hardlink
ln -s source softlink

-- The ls command shows this 2 links as a file.

So my query is, does ln / ln -s actually create a file?

Regards, Shyam

© Stack Overflow or respective owner

Related posts about unix

polkit: disable all users except those in group wheel?

as seen on Ask Ubuntu - Search for 'Ask Ubuntu'
Is it possible to do the following using 1 polkit .pkla file? Disable all users except those in the wheel group from using polkit. The users in the wheel group will need to provide the root password when using polkit. /etc/polkit-1/localauthority/50-local.d/wheel-only.pkla [disable all users… >>> More
How to find other end of unix socket connection?

as seen on Server Fault - Search for 'Server Fault'
I have a process (dbus-daemon) which has many open connection over UNIX sockets. One of these connections is fd #36: =$ ps uw -p 23284 USER PID %CPU %MEM VSZ RSS TTY STAT START TIME COMMAND depesz 23284 0.0 0.0 24680 1772 ? Ss 15:25 0:00 /bin/dbus-daemon --fork… >>> More
Meaning of directories on Unix and Unix like systems

as seen on Server Fault - Search for 'Server Fault'
I've been using Linux for a couple of years now but I still haven't figured out what the origin or meaning of some the directory names are on Unix and Unix like systems. E.g. what does etc stand for or var? Where does the opt name come from? And while we're on the topic anyway. Can someone give a… >>> More
Easy understanding of UNIX and UNIX shell scripting!!

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
Hi All, I am beginner to UNIX,UNIX Shell Scripting. Can you please guide me through any excellent sites for unix(which are easy to understand),some study materials(tutorials),video tutorials. Please help!! Thanks! >>> More
Is Mac OS X a licensed Unix or Unix-like clone that conforms to Unix specification?

as seen on Super User - Search for 'Super User'
Is Mac OS X developed on a licensed Unix or is it a Unix-like clone that, unlike Linux, conforms to Unix specification well enough to be registered as a Unix OS. Not until Leopard, Mac OS X did not gain the Unix certification. But in Leopard, Terminal still print: GNU bash, version 3.2.48(1)-release… >>> More

Related posts about hardlink

Windows7 hardlink over two different drives

as seen on Super User - Search for 'Super User'
I am trying to create a hardlink on my C drive that points to a file on my D drive. I open up a terminal with Administrator privileges and try the following: C:\Users\sandro>mklink /H _vimrc D:\sandro-desktop\.vimrc The error that I get is: The system cannot move the file to a different disk… >>> More
bind (hardlink) one directory to many places

as seen on Server Fault - Search for 'Server Fault'
I need to "bind" one directory to many chrooted places. I know that I can do "mount -o bind", but this requires special processing on startup each time (run the mount). Is there a way to do it on the filesystem directly? My fs is ext4 and it seems not to support hardlinks to directories. Hardlinking… >>> More
Hardlink files not the same

as seen on Server Fault - Search for 'Server Fault'
I created a hardlink of a file as follows: ln /path/to/source/file1 /path/to/target/file2 Using md5sum, the two files are identical. After a while, the source file has been modified by another program. The target file does not get "updated". The md5sums are now different. The files are on… >>> More
replace file with hardlink to another file atomically

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
I have two directory entries, a and b. Before, a and b point to different inodes. Afterwards, I want b to point to the same inode as a does. I want this to be safe - by which I mean if I fail somewhere, b either points to its original inode or the a inode. most especially I don't want to end up with… >>> More
fsutil hardlink doesn't work?

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
I was looking for a way to create hard links under Windows and I found this page: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc788097.aspx To try it out, I created a file (1.txt) on the root of my C: drive with 100 lines of the following content: C:\1.txt (2.598 bytes): test test test test test Then… >>> More