Soft links and Hard links
The link file under Linux is a bit like a shortcut to Windows, but it's not exactly the same. There are two types of linked files: One is a hard link and the other is a symbolic link (also known as a soft link).
The Unix file system provides a mechanism for linking different files to the same file, which we call a link. It allows a single program to use a different name for the same file. The benefit is that the file system only has a copy of the file, and the system simply implements the connection by creating a new entry in the directory.
Soft joins and hard-link plots
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Hard Links
A hard link can be created by the command link or ln, such as:
link
ln oldfile newfile
Symbolic Links
Soft link (also called symbolic link) It is a special file that points to another file whose data part contains only the pathname of the file to which it is linked. Soft links are introduced to overcome the lack of hard links, and soft links do not directly use the Inode number as a file pointer, but instead use the file path name as a pointer (soft link: file name + data part ‐‐> The pathname of the destination file). The software has its own inode and has a small space on the disk to store the path name. Therefore, the soft link can cross the file system, can also be linked with the directory; Second, a soft link can link to a nonexistent file name, but it will not open its link until it has been created. When a soft link points to a file that has been renamed or moved, the soft link does not update, and the original value remains unchanged.
For example, a file system has run out of space, but now you have to create a new directory under the file system and store a large number of files, you can link another file system with more remaining space in the file system, which can be a good solution to the problem of space shortage. Deleting a soft link does not affect the file being pointed to, but if the original file being pointed to is deleted, the associated soft connection becomes a dead link.
ln -s old.file soft.link
ln -s old.dir soft.link.dir
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12, Linux soft links and hard links in the detailed