the difference between a soft link and a hard link?
- 6 Answers
- 11527 Views
- I also Faced
- E-Mail Answers
Answers were Sorted based on User's Feedback
Answer / rajhshekhar aletty
using hard link, we can't create links for directories. the
link can be created within the same File System, the link
can't span into an other File System.
using soft (symbol) link, we can create links for
directories moreover that link can span into an other File
System.
| Is This Answer Correct ? | 8 Yes | 0 No |
Answer / rajan.v.r
in hardlink the pid of the two files are same. we cannot
create the link b/w two directories and files are in two
different system directory. but in softlink the pids are
different and we cant two link directories
| Is This Answer Correct ? | 2 Yes | 0 No |
Answer / linuxdemon
soft link is like shortcut.so if you delete the softlink
file, the original file wont get deleted.
Hard link is like real copy of the file.so if you delete the
hardlink file, the original file will be deleted.
ln filename hardlinkfilename
ln -s filename softlinkfilename
| Is This Answer Correct ? | 6 Yes | 6 No |
Answer / upendar
Soft Link: When we create a soft link, the link is created and stored in same address where the file is stored. The disadvantage of this type of link is if we delete the file the link becomes broken link and our data is lost.
Ex: ln -s data.text slink.text
If we delete data.text, slink.text link becomes broken link and our data lost.
Hard Link: When we create a hard link, the link is created and
stored in different address. But if we delete the file , the file is deleted and the link remain active so we won't loss the data.
Ex: ln data.text hlink.text
If we delete the file data.text, our data would be accessible through the hlink.text.
| Is This Answer Correct ? | 0 Yes | 0 No |
Soft Link:
1. It can be created across file system
2. Different inode number than original file.
3. On deleting original file soft link cannot be accessed.
4. Can be created on a file or directory.
5. Source file need not exist for soft link creation.
6. Need extra memory to store data of original file.
7. Access to the file is slower due to overhead to access
file.
Hard Link:
1. Only within file system.
2. Same inode number as original file.
3. It can still be accessed.
4. Only on files.
5. Source file should exist.
6. Not required.
7. Faster than soft link.
Thanks,
Srini
| Is This Answer Correct ? | 0 Yes | 0 No |
what do you understand bythe term 'de-mountable volumes'?
What is the use of cut command in unix?
what is the difference between "cron" command and "at" command?
What do chown command do?
How will you know who are the users logged in to the system before 15 minutes?
What is command substitution?
What UNIX command will control the default file permissions when files are created?
Is there any method to erase all files in the current directory, along with its all sub-directories, by using only one command?
What is FIND, GREP and SED ? Could you please give me the difference between all the three? Where we use this commnands?
Explain command to show the space allocation of files?
Write a command to find all of the files which have been accessed within the last 30 days.
5 Answers Google, IBM, Satyam,
How to know a process is a zombie or orphan process?
Unix Commands 
