1
Reply

What is the difference between soft link and hard link in Unix operating system ?

Pradeep

Pradeep

15y
6.3k
0
Reply

    Hard Links :
    1. All Links have same inode number.
    2.ls -l command shows all the links with the link column(Second) shows No. of links.
    3. Links have actual file contents.
    4.Removing any link ,just reduces the link count , but doesn't affect other links.

    Soft Links(Symbolic Links) :
    1.Links have different inode numbers.
    2. ls -l command shows all links with second column value 1 and the link points to original file.
    3. Link has the path for original file and not the contents.
    4.Removing soft link doesn't affect anything but removing original file ,the link becomes "dangling" link which points to nonexistant file.