Question: How do I link a file to another file in Linux?

To make links between files you need to use ln command. A symbolic link (also known as a soft link or symlink) consists of a special type of file that serves as a reference to another file or directory. Unix/Linux like operating systems often uses symbolic links.

Ln Command to Create Symbolic Links

  1. By default, the ln command creates a hard link.
  2. Use the -s option to create a soft (symbolic) link.
  3. The -f option will force the command to overwrite a file that already exists.
  4. Source is the file or directory being linked to.

To create a link between two or more documents in the same folder

  1. Select the files that are to be linked within a folder. At least two files must be selected.
  2. Click Link.
  3. In the Create Links Between Documents window, select the “parent” document from the list and click Link.

To create a symbolic link, use the -s ( –symbolic ) option. 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 ).

Replace source_file with the name of the existing file for which you want to create the symbolic link (this file can be any existing file or directory across the file systems). Replace myfile with the name of the symbolic link. The ln command then creates the symbolic link.

To create a hard links on a Linux or Unix-like system:

  1. Create hard link between sfile1file and link1file, run: ln sfile1file link1file.
  2. To make symbolic links instead of hard links, use: ln -s source link.
  3. To verify soft or hard links on Linux, run: ls -l source link.

The reason hard-linking directories is not allowed is a little technical. Essentially, they break the file-system structure. You should generally not use hard links anyway. Symbolic links allow most of the same functionality without causing problems (e.g ln -s target link ).

Creating Links to multiple files in a folder

  1. Open the folder, but don’t open any of the files.
  2. Right-click inside of the “Address Bar” on the Window.
  3. Select Copy Address.
  4. Open your Browser (Internet Explorer)
  5. Click inside of the “Address Bar” on the browser window (to select the contents)

The best way to open an LINK file is to simply double-click it and let the default assoisated application open the file. If you are unable to open the file this way, it may be because you do not have the correct application associated with the extension to view or edit the LINK file.

The ln command in Linux creates links between source files and directories.

  1. -s – the command for Symbolic Links.
  2. [target file] – name of the existing file for which you are creating the link.
  3. [Symbolic filename] – name of the symbolic link.

To view the symbolic links in a directory:

  1. Open a terminal and move to that directory.
  2. Type the command: ls -la. This shall long list all the files in the directory even if they are hidden.
  3. The files that start with l are your symbolic link files.

UNIX Symbolic link or Symlink Tips

  1. Use ln -nfs to update the soft link. …
  2. Use pwd in a combination of UNIX soft link to find out the actual path your soft link is pointing out. …
  3. To find out all UNIX soft link and hard link in any directory execute following command “ls -lrt | grep “^l” “.

What does mean Linux?

For this particular case following code means: Somebody with user name “user” has logged in to the machine with host name “Linux-003”. “~” – represent the home folder of the user, conventionally it would be /home/user/, where “user” is the user name can be anything like /home/johnsmith.

A soft link (also known as Symbolic link) acts as a pointer or a reference to the file name. It does not access the data available in the original file.

Soft Link :

Comparison Parameters Hard link Soft link
File system It cannot be used across file systems. It can be used across file systems.
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