Compare amongst soft links and hard links.

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written 7.2 years ago by

HARD LINKS	SOFT LINKS
Hard Link acts like a mirror copy of the original file	Soft Link is actual link to the original file
These links share the same inodes	These Links will have a different Inodes value
Any changes made to the original or Hard linked file will reflect the other	Any changes made to the soft link will reflect the original file and its hard links.
Even if you delete any one of the files, nothing will happen to the other hard links.	Any changes made to the soft link will reflect the original file and its hard links.
Hard links can't cross file systems.	Soft links can cross file systems
You can't link a directory even within the same file system.	You can link a directory using soft link on same file system and also on other file system
Permission changes of original file reflects only on hard links	Permission changes of original file do not reflect. It remains unchanged
Removing the original file will not affect the hard link. Hard link in unaffected	Removing the original file will affect the soft link. The soft link fails and it becomes dangling symbolic link (or broken link)
Changing the contents of the hard link will reflects on main file and also reflects on soft link of main file.	Changing the contents of soft link will reflects on main file and also on all links of main file.
it's not possible to create hard link on directory	it is possible to create soft link on directory

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