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Revision: 16781
at August 15, 2009 16:35 by deepsoul
Initial Code 
# create hard link in subdir which points to ../otherdir/file
ln ../otherdir/file subdir/link

# create symbolic link in subdir which points to ../otherdir/file
ln -s ../../otherdir/file subdir/symlink
# note the additional "../" which compensates the subdir
Initial URL 

                                

                                                            

                                    

                                        

                                        Initial Description
                                        

                                    

                                    
When using `ln` to create a link in a different directory, the semantics of creating hard and symbolic links differ.  That is because a hard link contains a direct reference to its target's data, while a symbolic link is just a string containing a (possibly relative) path.  You can get around this by using absoute paths, but then moving a subtree will break the symlink.

Just to recap, the other main differences between hard and symbolic links: Symbolic links can be left dangling when their target is removed; hard links cannot.  Symbolic links can point to files on other partitions or disks, while hard links cannot.

                                

                                                            

                                    

                                        

                                        Initial Title
                                        

                                    

                                    
Creating links in different directories (Linux/UNIX)

                                

                                                            

                                    

                                        

                                        Initial Tags
                                        

                                    

                                    
path, link, unix, linux, directory

                                

                                                            

                                    

                                        

                                        Initial Language
                                        

                                    

                                    
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