Hard link vs Soft link
Published: Wednesday, Dec 26, 2007 Last modified: Wednesday, Oct 2, 2024
bilbo$ cd /tmp bilbo$ mkdir test bilbo$ cd test bilbo$ ll total 20 drwxrwxr-x 2 hendry hendry 4096 2004-07-06 11:43 . drwxrwxrwt 17 root root 16384 2004-07-06 11:43 .. bilbo$ touch file bilbo$ ls -iNotice the 2 which shows how many references to the Inode.816039 file
bilbo$ ln -s file symbol bilbo$ ln file hard bilbo$ ls -il total 0
816039 -rw-rw-r-- 2 hendry hendry 0 2004-07-06 11:43 file 816039 -rw-rw-r-- 2 hendry hendry 0 2004-07-06 11:43 hard 816040 lrwxrwxrwx 1 hendry hendry 4 2004-07-06 11:43 symbol -> file
bilbo$ echo test » file bilbo$ ll total 28 drwxrwxr-x 2 hendry hendry 4096 2004-07-06 11:43 . drwxrwxrwt 17 root root 16384 2004-07-06 11:43 .. -rw-rw-r– 2 hendry hendry 5 2004-07-06 11:45 file -rw-rw-r– 2 hendry hendry 5 2004-07-06 11:45 hard lrwxrwxrwx 1 hendry hendry 4 2004-07-06 11:43 symbol -> file bilbo$ echo test » file bilbo$ ll total 28 drwxrwxr-x 2 hendry hendry 4096 2004-07-06 11:43 . drwxrwxrwt 17 root root 16384 2004-07-06 11:43 .. -rw-rw-r– 2 hendry hendry 5 2004-07-06 11:45 file -rw-rw-r– 2 hendry hendry 5 2004-07-06 11:45 hard lrwxrwxrwx 1 hendry hendry 4 2004-07-06 11:43 symbol -> file
bilbo$ rm hard bilbo$ ll total 24 drwxrwxr-x 2 hendry hendry 4096 2004-07-06 11:46 . drwxrwxrwt 17 root root 16384 2004-07-06 11:43 .. -rw-rw-r-- 1 hendry hendry 5 2004-07-06 11:45 file lrwxrwxrwx 1 hendry hendry 4 2004-07-06 11:43 symbol -> file bilbo$ rm file bilbo$ ll total 20 drwxrwxr-x 2 hendry hendry 4096 2004-07-06 11:47 . drwxrwxrwt 17 root root 16384 2004-07-06 11:43 .. lrwxrwxrwx 1 hendry hendry 4 2004-07-06 11:43 symbol -> file bilbo$ cat symbol cat: symbol: No such file or directory bilbo$
Only case I can think where a hard link would be useful, is where you want to make sure the file isn’t accidently deleted. All hard links must go before the file goes to bit heaven. Summary: Use soft link