About hard links in Unix

A hard link is essentially a label or name assigned to a file. Conventionally, we think of a file as consisting of a set of information that has a single name. However, it is possible to create a number of different names that all refer to the same contents. Commands executed upon any of these different names will then operate upon the same file contents.

To make a hard link to an existing file, enter:

 ln oldfile newlink

Replace oldfile with the original filename, and newlink with the additional name you'd like to use to refer to the original file.

This will create a new item in your working directory, newlink, which is linked to the contents of oldfile. The new link will show up along with the rest of your filenames when you list them using the ls command. This new link is not a separate copy of the old file, but rather a different name for exactly the same file contents as the old file. Consequently, any changes you make to oldfile will be visible in newlink.

You can use the standard Unix rm command to delete a link. After a link has been removed, the file contents will still exist as long as there is one name referencing the file. Thus, if you use the rm command on a filename, and a separate link exists to the same file contents, you have not really deleted the file; you can still access it through the other link. Consequently, hard links can make it difficult to keep track of files. Furthermore, hard links cannot refer to files located on different computers linked by NFS, nor can they refer to directories. For all of these reasons, you should consider using a symbolic link, also known as a soft link, instead of a hard link.