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+<link rel="HOME" title="Slackware Linux Essentials" href="index.html" />
+<link rel="UP" title="Filesystem Structure" href="filesystem-structure.html" />
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+<tr>
+<th colspan="3" align="center">Slackware Linux Essentials</th>
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+
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+<td width="10%" align="left" valign="bottom"><a
+href="filesystem-structure-permissions.html" accesskey="P">Prev</a></td>
+<td width="80%" align="center" valign="bottom">Chapter 9 Filesystem Structure</td>
+<td width="10%" align="right" valign="bottom"><a
+href="filesystem-structure-mounting.html" accesskey="N">Next</a></td>
+</tr>
+</table>
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+
+<div class="SECT1">
+<h1 class="SECT1"><a id="FILESYSTEM-STRUCTURE-LINKS"
+name="FILESYSTEM-STRUCTURE-LINKS">9.3 Links</a></h1>
+
+<p>Links are pointers between files. With links, you can have files exist in many
+locations and be accessible by many names. There are two types of links: hard and
+soft.</p>
+
+<p>Hard links are names for a particular file. They can only exist within a single
+filesystem and are only removed when the real name is removed from the system. These are
+useful in some cases, but many users find the soft link to be more versatile.</p>
+
+<p>The soft link, also called a symbolic link, can point to a file outside of its
+filesystem. It is actually a small file containing the information it needs. You can add
+and remove soft links without affecting the actual file. And since a symbolic link is
+actually a small file containing its own information, they can even point at a directory.
+It's rather common to have <tt class="FILENAME">/var/tmp</tt> actually be a symbolic link
+to <tt class="FILENAME">/tmp</tt> for example.</p>
+
+<p>Links do not have their own set of permissions or ownerships, but instead reflect
+those of the file they point to. Slackware uses mostly soft links. Here is a common
+example:</p>
+
+<table border="0" bgcolor="#E0E0E0" width="100%">
+<tr>
+<td>
+<pre class="SCREEN">
+<samp class="PROMPT">%</samp> <kbd class="USERINPUT">ls -l /bin/sh</kbd>
+lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 4 Apr 6 12:34 /bin/sh -&#62; bash
+</pre>
+</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+<p>The <tt class="COMMAND">sh</tt> shell under Slackware is actually <tt
+class="COMMAND">bash</tt>. Removing links is done using <tt class="COMMAND">rm</tt>. The
+<tt class="COMMAND">ln</tt> command is used to create links. These commands will be
+discussed in more depth in <a href="file-commands.html">Chapter 10</a>.</p>
+
+<p>It's very important to be careful about symlinks in particular. Once, I was working on
+a machine that was consistently failing to back-up to tape each night. Two symlinks had
+been made to directories beneath each other. The back-up software kept appending those
+same directories to the tape until it was out of space. Normally, a set of checks will
+prevent creating a symlink in this situation, but ours was a special case.</p>
+</div>
+
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+<hr align="LEFT" width="100%" />
+<table summary="Footer navigation table" width="100%" border="0" cellpadding="0"
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+accesskey="P">Prev</a></td>
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+accesskey="H">Home</a></td>
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+accesskey="N">Next</a></td>
+</tr>
+
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+<td width="33%" align="left" valign="top">Permissions</td>
+<td width="34%" align="center" valign="top"><a href="filesystem-structure.html"
+accesskey="U">Up</a></td>
+<td width="33%" align="right" valign="top">Mounting Devices</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
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+