A symbolic link is used to make links between files using ln command. A symbolic link, also known as a symlink or soft link, is a special type of file that points to another file or directory. This tutorial covers how to use the ln command to create symbolic or soft links.

Links Types#

There are following two types of links in Linux/UNIX systems:

• Soft links – A soft link is indicating the abstract path of another file or directory. It’s also know as Symbolic Links or
• Hard links – It is referring a specific location of an existing file. It is possible to create multiple hard links for a single file. It’s not possible to create hard links for files and directories on a different file system or partition.

How Create Symbolic Links#

To create a symbolic link you have to use ln command-line utility. By default, the ln command creates hard links. To create a symbolic link use, the -s (--symbolic) option.

Following is the basic syntax for ln command:

ln -s [OPTIONS] FILE LINK

Here,

• FILE – You have to give source of file for which you want to create link.
• LINK – It’s a symbolic file name.

If given only one argument and second argument is dot (.) then ln command will create a link to that file in current working directory. The name of the symlink will be the same as the name of the file it points to.

Creating Symlink To a File#

In following format you can create symbolic link:

ln -s source_filename symbolic_link

Here, you have to replace source_filename with your existing file name for which you want to create symbolic link and symbolic_link with the name of the symbolic link.

The symbolic_link is an optional argument and if you will not provide, ln command will create a symbolic link in current working directory.

For example, to create a symbolic link for /home/file.php as file_link.php

ln -s /home/file.php file_link.php

You can verify using ls command that symlink is created successfully.

It will show output as following:

lrwxrwxrwx 1 tecnstuff tnsgrp 4 May 2 14:03 /home/file.php -> file_link.php

The-> symbol shows the file the symlink points to.

Creating Symlinks To a Directory#

Creating symlink to a directory is the same as creating symlink for a file. Give the source directory as first argument and symlink as second argument.

For instance, to create a symbolic link for /etc/nginx/sites-available/example.com to the /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/ directory you would run:

ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/example.com /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/

Overwriting Symlinks#

When a symbolic link is already exists and you try to create, the ln command will throw an error message.

ln -s /home/file.php file_link.php

ln: failed to create symbolic link 'file_link.php': File exists

You can overwrite the symlink using -f (--force) option.

ln -f -s /home/file.php file_link.php

Deleting Symlinks#

You can delete or remove symlinks using unlink or rm command.

Below is the syntax for unlink command:

unlink name_of_symlink

Removing a symbolic link using the rm command is the same as when removing a file:

rm symlink_to_remove

Conclusion#

This tutorial shown you how to create a symbolic link in Linux using the ln command with the -s option. To know more about the ln command, visit the ln man page.

If you have any questions or feedback, feel free to leave a comment.