difference between soft and hard link in linux...........???

Hardlink

• Hardlink is possible within the same filesystem

• Hardlink pointing to the same inode

• Hardlink cannot create a link for a directory

• Hardlink does not break even if you change the name of the original file

Softlink (symlink)

• Softlink is possible in a different filesystem

• Softlink have different inode 

• Softlink can be used to create a link for both directory & file

• Softlink will break if you change the name of the original file because it resolves the name of the file each time you access it through the softlink.

Inode(Index Node):-

Inode is a data structure (or) it is a file structure on a file system, Each inode stores the attributes of the file system objects.Inode contains the following information about the file:-

• Inode Number

• File Permission 

• File Change (or) Modify Time

• Owner (user-id of the file) & (group-id of the file)

• Size of the File 

• Device ID (this identifies the device containing the file).

• Disk Block Location

• Number of links

• Status flags

To create Softlink in linux:-

Use the following syntax:-

# ln -s <source-file> <link-file>

[root@lenovo ~]# ln -s /var/ftp/pub/file1.txt /softlink/file1.txt

[root@lenovo ~]# ll -ltrh /softlink/

lrwxrwxrwx. 1 root root 22 Jun  8 10:26 file1.txt -> /var/ftp/pub/file1.txt

To unlink the file in linux:-

Use the following syntax:-

# unlink <linkname>

[root@lenovo ~]# unlink /softlink/file1.txt

To create Hardlink in linux:-

Use the following syntax:-

#ln <source-file> <link-file>

[root@lenovo ~]# ln /var/ftp/pub/file2.txt /linkdir/file2.txt

[root@lenovo ~]# ls -li /var/ftp/pub/file2.txt

1181563 -rw-r--r--. 2 root root 0 Jun  8 10:50 /var/ftp/pub/file2.txt

[root@lenovo ~]# ls -li /linkdir/file2.txt

1181563 -rw-r--r--. 2 root root 0 Jun  8 10:50 /linkdir/file2.txt

[Note:-  see after creating hardlink both the files showing same inode number]