Another quick way of saying it: a symlink is a name that points at another name; a hardlink is a name that points at file content. Neither has any exclusive rights to the thing it points at.
On Mon, Sep 22, 2014 at 4:55 PM, Russell Senior <[email protected]> wrote: > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hard_link > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symbolic_link > > On Mon, Sep 22, 2014 at 4:53 PM, Russell Senior > <[email protected]> wrote: >> On Mon, Sep 22, 2014 at 4:43 PM, Nathan McCorkle <[email protected]> wrote: >> >>> A symlink is basically a shortcut file that points to another file. My >>> basic understanding is when a symlink is removed, the real file isn't >>> touched, but if you use a hardlink to make the shortcut, if you remove >>> the hardlink the real file also gets removed. >> >> Removing the hardlink does not remove the real file, unless it is the >> last link to the "real file" (or inode). >> >> A symlink is the file system holding a name that redirects to the >> other filename. The other filename doesn't even need to exist. >> >> A hard link is just another name that points at the inode. The inode >> is the filesystem object that holds the content of the file. The >> inode keeps a reference count, when it goes to zero (or something like >> that) the inode releases the blocks associated with the content of the >> file. There is no hierachy in hardlinks, one is treated the same as >> any other. You can create a hardlink to a file and then remove the >> original filename and the hardlink survives. The ls -l command will >> show you the reference count associated with a file. _______________________________________________ dorkbotpdx-blabber mailing list [email protected] http://music.columbia.edu/mailman/listinfo/dorkbotpdx-blabber
