Sometimes you might not want ln command to create the new link, if the destination path is already a symbolic link that is pointing to a directory.įollowing examples shows a normal way of creating soft link inside a directory. While creating a new soft link, normally OS would de-reference the destination path before it creates the new soft link. Create Link Using “No-Deference” ln Command Option Note: If you don’t want the backup and overwrite the existing file then use -f option. Lrwxrwxrwx 1 chris chris 5 17:02 ex2.c -> ex1.c When you create a new link (if another file exist already with the same name as the new link name), you can instruct ln command to take a backup of the original file before creating the new link using the –backup option as shown below. Backup the Target Files If it Already Exists Ln: creating hard link `/tmp/Makefile' to `Makefile': Invalid cross-device linkĪnd the symbolic link can be created in the same way as we did in the above. You would see the “Invalid cross-device link” error when you are trying to create a hard link file across partitions. Creating hard link across partitions is not allowed, as Unix can’t create/maintain same inode numbers across partitions. When you want to create the link across partitions, you are allowed to create only the symbolic links. Note: Unix / Linux will not allow any user (even root) to create hard link for a directory. The hard link for files can be created as follows, $ ln src_original.txt dst_link.txt The inode number for the hard linked files would be same. Note: The inode of the original file/directory and the soft link should not be identical. Lrwxrwxrwx 1 chris chris 6 16:48 objects -> /home/chris/obj Just like file, you can create symbolic link for directories as shown below. Lrwxrwxrwx 1 chris chris 21 07:23 library.so -> /home/chris/src/library.so $ ln -s /home/chris/src/library.so library.so The following examples creates a symbolic link library.so under /home/chris/lib, based on the library.so located under /home/chris/src/ directory. Create Symbolic Link for File or Directory Create a symbolic link for a File $ ln /full/path/of/original/file /full/path/of/hard/link/fileĢ. To create a hard link, do the following (ln command with no option): When you use link files, it helps us to reduce the disk space by having single copy of the original file and ease the administration tasks as the modification in original file reflects in other places. In this, “.” directory is hard linked to the current directory and the “.” is hard linked to the parent directory. Once you create a directory, you would see the hidden directories “.” and “.”. With Hard Link, more than one file name reference the same inode number. $ ln -s /full/path/of/original/file /full/path/of/soft/link/file To create a soft link, do the following (ln command with -s option): The data in the original file can be accessed through the special file, which is called as Soft Link.
Linux OS recognizes the data part of this special file as a reference to another file path. What is Soft Link and Hard Link? Soft Link If the 1st character is l (lower case L), then it is a link file.ġ. The 1st character in each and every line of the ls command output indicates one of the following file types. rw-r-r- 1 chris chris 22 23:36 sample.txt Lrwxrwxrwx 1 chris chris 10 23:40 file1 -> sample.txt
#UNIX LINK LN HOW TO#
This article explains how to create soft link, how to create hard link, and various link tips and tricks with 10 practical examples. Linux ln command is used to create either soft or hard links. There are two types of links available in Linux - Soft Link and Hard Link.
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