LN Command - Create Links

https://linuxize.com/post/how-to-create-symbolic-links-in-linux-using-the-ln-command/ 

 Links Types 

 There are two types of links in Linux/UNIX systems: 

 

 Hard links . You can think a hard link as an additional name for an existing file. Hard links are associating two or more file names with the same  inode  . You can create one or more hard links for a single file. Hard links cannot be created for directories and files on a different filesystem or partition. 

 Soft links . A soft link is something like a shortcut in Windows. It is an indirect pointer to a file or directory. Unlike a hard link, a symbolic link can point to a file or a directory on a different filesystem or partition. 

 

 How to Use the  ln  Command 

 ln  is a command-line utility for creating links between files. By default, the  ln  command creates hard links. To create a symbolic link, use the  -s  ( --symbolic ) option. 

 The  ln  command syntax for creating symbolic links is as follows: 

 ln -s [OPTIONS] FILE LINK

 

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 If both the  FILE  and  LINK  are given,  ln  will create a link from the file specified as the first argument ( FILE ) to the file specified as the second argument ( LINK ). 

 If only one file is given as an argument or the second argument is a dot ( . ),  ln  will create a link to that file in the  current working directory  . The name of the symlink will be the same as the name of the file it points to. 

 

 By default, on success,  ln  doesn’t produce any output and returns zero. 

 Creating Symlink To a File 

 To create a symbolic link to a given file, open your terminal and type: 

 ln -s source_file symbolic_link

 

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 Replace  source_file  with the name of the existing file for which you want to create the symbolic link and  symbolic_link  with the name of the symbolic link. 

 The  symbolic_link  parameter is optional. If you do not specify the symbolic link, the  ln  command will create a new link in your current directory: 

 In the following example, we are creating a symbolic link named  my_link.txt  to a file named  my_file.txt : 

 ln -s my_file.txt my_link.txt Copy 

 To verify that the symlink was successfully created, use the  ls  command: 

 ls -l my_link.txt Copy 

 The output will look something like this: 

 lrwxrwxrwx 1 linuxize users 4 Nov 2 23:03 my_link.txt -> my_file.txt

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 The  l  character is a file type flag that represents a symbolic link. The  ->  symbol shows the file the symlink points to. 

 Creating Symlinks To a Directory 

 The command for creating a symbolic link to a directory is the same as when creating a symbolic link to a file. Specify the directory name as the first parameter and the symlink as the second parameter. 

 For example, if you want to create a symbolic link from the  /mnt/my_drive/movies  directory to the  ~/my_movies  directory you would run: 

 ln -s /mnt/my_drive/movies ~/my_movies

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 Overwriting Symlinks 

 If you try to create a  symbolic link that already exists  , the  ln  command will print an error message. 

 ln -s my_file.txt my_link.txt Copy 

 ln: failed to create symbolic link 'my_link.txt': File exists

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 To overwrite the destination path of the symlink, use the  -f  ( --force ) option. 

 ln -sf my_file.txt my_link.txt Copy 

 Removing Symlinks 

 To  delete/remove symbolic links  use either the  unlink  or  rm  command. 

 The syntax of the  unlink  is very simple: 

 unlink symlink_to_remove

 

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 Removing a symbolic link using the  rm  command is the same as when removing a file: 

 rm symlink_to_remove

 

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 No matter which command you use, when removing a symbolic link not append the  /  trailing slash at the end of its name. 

 If you delete or move the source file to a different location, the symbolic file will be left dangling (broken) and should be removed.