what is symbolic link in unix ???

Answer Posted / prince udirmaan deka

As we know that there are three file system in the UNIX. They are Ordinary File, Device File and Directory File. The fourth file is Symbolic File. Like unlike Hard Links, they don't stored any content but provides the pathname of the file. Symbolic Links are sometime often called as Soft links.

The ln command is used to create soft link with -s option.
For example:-
$ ln ln -s note note.sys
$ ls -il note note.sys

12345 rwx_wx_w_ Kumar 2 metal grp 12 feb 22 12:23 note
12346 lrw_rwxr_x Kumar 2 metal grp 10 mar 12 16:00 note.sys->

From the above example we can see two expressions:-
1) l(el):identifies the permission of the file.
2) ->(pointer): provide path name to the file note.

In soft link, we can see that inode number is different for each file.

It is important to realize that if we delete the file note.sym, then we recreate link easily. But if note file is deleted then would lose the content of data. In that case, note.sys points to non- existent file and becomes dangling pointer.

Is This Answer Correct ?    0 Yes 0 No



Post New Answer       View All Answers


Please Help Members By Posting Answers For Below Questions

What ipc 304?

500


What does ipc stand for in banking?

505


What does ipc class mean?

563


What are System Calls?

1216


What is ipc in linux?

495






How to Destroy Sockets?

1189


What is an ipc code?

544


What are the advantages of ipc?

515


What is ipc rtos?

577


What are Internet-Domain Sockets?

1261


Which ipc mechanism is fastest and how?

515


How to Create Pipes?

1256


How to obtain information about shared memory?

1038


How to Debugg Semaphores?

1039


How to Initialize Semaphores?

1092