Master Linux Hard and Soft Links: A Complete Step‑by‑Step Guide

In Linux, each file consists of user data (the actual content) and metadata (attributes such as size, timestamps, owner, and the inode number that uniquely identifies the file on disk).

The inode is the true identifier; the filename is merely a human‑readable label. Links are filesystem objects that point to existing files. There are two main types: hard links and symbolic (soft) links.

Hard link : created with ln myfile hard. Both myfile and hard share the same inode, so they refer to the same data blocks. Modifying either file updates the shared content, as demonstrated by appending a line to hard and seeing the change in myfile.

Symbolic link : created with ln -s myfile soft. The link has its own inode and stores the absolute path to the target file. Deleting the original file leaves the symlink dangling; attempting to read it yields “No such file or directory”. Writing to the symlink recreates the target file because the kernel resolves the stored path.

$ touch myfile && echo "This is a plain text file." > myfile
$ cat myfile
This is a plain text file.
$ ln myfile hard
$ ls -li
25869085 -rw-r--r-- 2 user staff 27 ... hard
25869085 -rw-r--r-- 2 user staff 27 ... myfile
$ echo "New line" >> hard
$ cat myfile
This is a plain text file.
New line
$ ln -s myfile soft
$ ls -li
25869085 -rw-r--r-- 2 user staff 36 ... myfile
25869216 lrwxr-xr-x 1 user staff 6 ... soft -> myfile
$ rm myfile
$ cat hard
This is a plain text file.
New line
$ cat soft
cat: soft: No such file or directory
$ echo "Something" >> soft
$ ls
hard  myfile  soft

In summary, hard links are indistinguishable from the original file because they share the same inode and data blocks, while symbolic links are separate files that store a path reference; they break when the target is removed but can recreate the target when written to.

Linux command reference: https://www.linuxcool.com/