Hi,
Hope I'm not duplicating someone else's response, but a hard link is a
pointer to a file; a soft link is an indirect pointer to a file.
A soft link can point to a non-existent file, while a hard link can not.
Also, a soft link may point to any file regardless of file structure.
All hard links to a file must be in the same file system.
All hard links to a file have equal status, but this is not true for
soft links.
I believe that you coule remove the first hard link to a file having
made several more.As long as you have one you can still access the file,
but if you remove all hard links you lose the file.
A good reference is Marl Sobell's "A Practical Guide to Linux."
Regards,
Bob
Herbert Stocker HSH[1126] wrote:
>
> On Mon, 12 Apr 1999, Michael Merritt wrote:
>
> >
> > Could a hard link also be referred to as a copy? I know it is not
> > technically correct, but I've found it easier to use that to rationalize
> > it to people with Windows backgrounds. Also, a soft link can be equated
> > to a Windows shortcut -- you can delete the shortcut and the file is
> > original file is not affected, but if you remove the original file, the
> > shortcut is then broken...
> >
>
> May be, if you keep in mind, that the difference between a copy and a
> hardlink is, that if you edit a copy of a file, you have two different
> versions of the file on disk. But if you edit a hard link, also the
> "original" is beeing altered. This is, since a hardlinked file exists
> only once on the disk, but have two directory entries to get to the data.
>
> You can consider a hard linked file as it beeing one file, but having two
> names. Or, if the hard link is created in another directory, consider the
> file as being in two places at the same time.
>
> If you create a hard link - saying you use ln file.txt second.txt -
> there is no difference between the directory entries "file.txt" and
> "second.txt". Both point to the same piece of data. And nobody could see,
> which was first.
>
> What you said about soft links is correct. They can be compared to Windows
> shortcuts. But the difference is, that soft links are something, the
> operating system understands, and therefore every program works with it
> and not only the windows explorer. And a soft link only contains the file
> name of the target, but no icon info, or such things.
>
> Hell
>
> --
> hell (Herbert Stocker)
> :
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>
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