Creating links in different directories (Linux/UNIX)


/ Published in: Bash
Save to your folder(s)

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.

Report this snippet


Comments

RSS Icon Subscribe to comments

You need to login to post a comment.