Question - Explain links and symbolic links.
Answer -
Links are defined as a second name which is used to assign more than one name to a file. Although links are referred to as a pointer to another file it cannot be used to link filenames on different computers.
A Symbolic link is also known as the soft link. It is defined as a special type of file that contains links or references to another file or directory in the form of an absolute or relative path. It does not contain the data actually in the target file but the pointer to another entry in the file system. Symbolic links can also be used to create a file system.
The following command is used to create a symbolic link:
- Ln –s target link_name
- Here, the path is ‘target’
- The name of the link is represented by link_name.