#.what is the difference between a soft link and a hard link?

#.what is the difference between a soft link and a hard link?

Unix files consist of two parts: the data part and the filename part.

The data part is associated with something called an 'inode'. The inode carries the map of where the data is, the file permissions, etc. for the data.

The filename part carries a name and an associated inode number.

More than one filename can reference the same inode number; these files are said to be 'hard linked' together.

On the other hand, there's a special file type whose data part carries a path to another file. Since it is a special file, the OS recognizes the data as a path, and redirects opens, reads, and writes so that, instead of accessing the data within the special file, they access the data in the file named by the data in the special file. This special file is called a 'soft link' or a 'symbolic link' (aka a 'symlink').
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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.