MicroNuggets: Hard Links versus Soft Links Explained

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In this video, Shawn Powers covers the difference between hard links and soft (or symbolic) links on a Linux OS 10 operating system. These are essentially two different ways that files are referenced on a hard drive, with the former pointing to the file itself and the latter directed towards the name of the file.

There are two primary types of links on a Linux OS 10: hard and soft (sometimes referred to as “symbolic”). A hard link begins with referencing a file that points to a specific spot on a hard drive where that data is stored. When you create a second file that points to the same location, it’s referred to as a hard-linked file. These two files behave separately except for one crucial distinction: when you change the data on one file, it updates the data in the other to reflect the changes. In a soft link, the original file is still located at a specific point on the hard drive. When a secondary file is created and soft-linked, the only role that secondary file plays is to point to the file one descriptor or name.

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