Creating and deleting a hard link in Linux

In one of our recent post (click here to read) we discussed about soft links . Now in this post we will discuss how to create and delete a hard link in Linux.

Hard links are also shortcuts used in Linux, but it is bit different from Soft Links. In case of a hard link, no new Inode will be created. If you are creating a hardlink to a fie with inode number 123456, hard link will use the same Inode. In case of soft links, a new Inode will be created for the link. Data can still be accessed via link even if the original file is deleted or moved to a different location.

Here Let us see the commands and some examples of them.

Syntax :

ln sourcefile linkfile    #ln command is used for hard link creation with this syntax.

Examples :

[[email protected] test]# cat >> testfile  #Created a file named testfile for use in next steps
this is a test file

[[email protected] test]# ls -li

30760 -rw-rw-r– 1 admin admin 20 Jan 3 11:39 testfile #Listing with inode number (30760)

[[email protected] test]#ln testfile testlink #Created a link named testlink

[[email protected] test]# ls -li

30760 -rw-rw-r– 1 admin admin 20 Jan 3 11:39 testfile #Both files with same inode number

30760 -rw-rw-r– 1 admin admin 20 Jan 3 11:39 testlink

[[email protected] test]#more testlink #Source being accessed via link.
this is a test file

 

[[email protected] test]#rm -rf testfile #Deleting the source file

[[email protected] test]#more testlink #Actual content via link even after source deletion.
this is a test file

[[email protected] test]#

Now let us see the link removal. unlink command can be used to remove a link.

Syntax :

unlink linkname

Example

[[email protected] test]#unlink testlink

[[email protected] test]#

Thus we have tried creating and deleting a hard link in Linux. Hope this was helpful for you.

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