Symbolic Links On Linux

 

Symbolic Links On Linux

CONTENTS

• Links Types
• How to Use the ln Command
• Creating Symlink To a File
• Creating Symlinks To a Directory
• Overwriting Symlinks
• Removing Symlinks

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Definition:

A symbolic link, also known as a symlink or soft link, is a special type of file that points to another file or directory.

ln command to create symbolic links.

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Links Types

There are two types of links in Linux/UNIX systems:

• Hard links. You can think a hard link as an additional name for an existing file. Hard links are associating two or more file names with the same inode . You can create one or more hard links for a single file. Hard links cannot be created for directories and files on a different filesystem or partition.
• Soft links. A soft link is something like a shortcut in Windows. It is an indirect pointer to a file or directory. Unlike a hard link, a symbolic link can point to a file or a directory on a different filesystem or partition.

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How to Use the ln Command

ln is a command-line utility for creating links between files. By default, the ln command creates hard links. To create a symbolic link, use the -s (--symbolic) option.

The ln command syntax for creating symbolic links is as follows:

ln -s [OPTIONS] FILE LINK

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Creating Symlink To a File
To create a symbolic link to a given file, open your terminal and type:
ln -s source_file symbolic_link
Replace source_file with the name of the existing file for which you want to create the symbolic link and symbolic_link with the name of the symbolic link.
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Creating Symlinks To a Directory 
ln -s /mnt/my_drive/movies ~/my_movies

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Overwriting Symlinks

If you try to create a symbolic link that already exists , the ln command will print an error message.

ln -s my_file.txt my_link.txt

ln: failed to create symbolic link 'my_link.txt': File exists

To overwrite the destination path of the symlink, use the -f (--force) option.

ln -sf my_file.txt my_link.txt----------------------------------------------------------------------
Removing Symlinks
To delete/remove symbolic links use either the unlink or rm command.
The syntax of the unlink is very simple:
unlink symlink_to_remove
Removing a symbolic link using the rm command is the same as when removing a file:
rm symlink_to_remove

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For more information about the ln command, visit the ln man page or type man ln in your terminal.

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Referencia: 

Linuxize  2022   https://linuxize.com/post/how-to-create-symbolic-links-in-linux-using-the-ln-command/