hard link

1 definition found

hard link - Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (26 May 2007) :

  hard link
  hard linking
  
     <file system> One of several directory entries which refer to
     the same Unix file.  A hard link is created with the "ln"
     (link) command:
  
     	ln <old name> <new name>
  
     where <old name> and <new name> are pathnames within the
     same file system.  Hard links to the same file are
     indistinguishable from each other except that they have
     different pathnames.  They all refer to the same inode and
     the inode contains all the information about a file.
  
     The standard ln command does not usually allow you to create a
     hard link to a directory, chiefly because the standard rm
     and rmdir commands do not allow you to delete such a link.
     Some systems provide link and unlink commands which give
     direct access to the system calls of the same name, for
     which no such restrictions apply.
  
     Normally all hard links to a file must be in the same file system
      because a directory entry just relates a pathname to
     an inode within the same file system.  The only exception is a
     mount point.
  
     The restrictions on hard links to directories and between
     file systems are very common but are not mandated by POSIX.
     Symbolic links are often used instead of hard links because
     they do not suffer from these restrictions.
  
     The space associated with a file is not freed until all the
     hard links to the file are deleted.  This explains why the
     system call to delete a file is called "unlink".
  
     Microsoft Windows NTFS supports hard links via the
     fsutil command.
  
     Unix manual page: ln(1).
  
     
  (http://microsoft.com/windowsxp/home/using/productdoc/en/fsutil_hardlink.asp).
  
     (2004-02-24)