What is symbolic link and hard link?

Posted on by Muna Meyer

What is symbolic link and hard link?

Hard links and symbolic links are two different methods to refer to a file in the hard drive. A hard link is essentially a synced carbon copy of a file that refers directly to the inode of a file. Symbolic links on the other hand refer directly to the file which refers to the inode, a shortcut.

How do I create a symbolic link in Mklink?

You can create symbolic links using the mklink command in a Command Prompt window as Administrator. To open one, locate the “Command Prompt” shortcut in your Start menu, right-click it, and select “Run as Administrator”.

How do I create a hard symbolic link?

To create a hard links on a Linux or Unix-like system:

  1. Create hard link between sfile1file and link1file, run: ln sfile1file link1file.
  2. To make symbolic links instead of hard links, use: ln -s source link.
  3. To verify soft or hard links on Linux, run: ls -l source link.

What does a symbolic link do?

A symbolic link, also termed a soft link, is a special kind of file that points to another file, much like a shortcut in Windows or a Macintosh alias. Unlike a hard link, a symbolic link does not contain the data in the target file. It simply points to another entry somewhere in the file system.

How do I create a symbolic link in cPanel?

There is a number of ways to create a symlink in cPanel:

  1. You can create a symlink via SSH by running the following command: ln -s /path/to/target /path/to/shortcut.
  2. It can also be created via a cronjob using the same command:
  3. You can also create a symlink using the PHP function.

How do you create a symbolic link on a Mac?

Find the file or folder you want to create a symlink for, right-click on it, and select Services followed by Make Symbolic Link. It’ll create the symlink in the same folder as the original file/folder. You can move it around though if you want.

Can you create a hard link to a directory?

We cannot create a hard link for a directory to avoid recursive loops. If original file is removed then the link will still show the content of the file. The size of any of the hard link file is same as the original file and if we change the content in any of the hard links then size of all hard link files are updated.