In this article, we will see Linux ln command with examples. This command used to create links between files.
Linux ln command Syntax:
ln [OPTION]... [-T] TARGET LINK_NAME or: ln [OPTION]... TARGET or: ln [OPTION]... TARGET... DIRECTORY or: ln [OPTION]... -t DIRECTORY TARGET...
In the 1st form, create a link to TARGET with the name LINK_NAME.
In the 2nd form, create a link to TARGET in the current directory.
In the 3rd and 4th forms, create links to each TARGET in DIRECTORY.
–>By default, ln command creates hard links.
–>Soft(Symbolic links are create with the option -s or –symbolic
There are two types of links:
1. Soft links or Symbolic links
2. Hard links
1. Soft Links: Refer to a symbolic path indicating the abstract location of another file. It is pointer to another file. Its just like Windows shortcut.
- Original file and soft link file have different inode, numbers, different file sizes and different timestamps.
- Usually softlink file has smaller file size than original file size.
- If we delete original file then softlinks will become useless.
Examples to create soft link with ln command:
ln -s filea.txt fileb.txt
1. Hard Links:Refer to the specific location of physical data. Its just another name of the same exact file.
- Both original file and hard file have same inode number, same size, same timestamp.
- If we delete original file, then there is no effect on the hard link file.
Examples to create hard link with ln command:
ln script1.sh scripted.sh
Where script1.sh is original and scripted.sh is the hard link file.
How to remove soft link:
unlink