symlink(4)                                                       symlink(4)




 NAME    [Toc]    [Back]
      symlink - symbolic link

 DESCRIPTION    [Toc]    [Back]
      A symbolic (or soft ) link is a file whose name indirectly refers
      (points) to a relative or absolute path name.

      During path name interpretation, a symbolic link to a relative path
      name is expanded to the path name being interpreted, and a symbolic
      link to an absolute path name is replaced with the path name being
      interpreted.

      Thus, given the path name /a/b/c/d:

           If c is a symbolic link to a relative path name such as ../x/y,
           the path name is interpreted as /a/b/../x/y/d.

           If c is a symbolic link to an absolute path name such as /v/w,
           the path name is interpreted as /v/w/d.

      All symbolic links are interpreted in this manner, with one exception:
      when the symbolic link is the last component of a path name, it is
      passed as a parameter to one of the system calls: readlink, rename,
      symlink, unlink, chown, or lstat (see readlink(2), rename(2),
      symlink(2), unlink(2), chown(2) and lstat(2)).  With these calls, the
      symbolic link, itself, is accessed or affected.

      Unlike normal (hard) links, a symbolic link can refer to any arbitrary
      path name and can span different logical devices (volumes).

      The path name can be that of any type of file (including a directory
      or another symbolic link), and may be invalid if no such path exists
      in the system.  (It is possible to make symbolic links point to
      themselves or other symbolic links in such a way that they form a
      closed loop.  The system detects this situation by limiting the number
      of symbolic links it traverses while translating a path name.)

      The mode and ownership of a symbolic link is ignored by the system,
      which means that chmod affects the actual file, but not the file
      containing the symbolic link (see chmod(1)).

      Symbolic links can be created using ln or symlink (see ln(1) and
      symlink(2)).

 AUTHOR    [Toc]    [Back]
      symlink was developed by HP and the University of California,
      Berkeley.

 SEE ALSO    [Toc]    [Back]
      cp(1), symlink(2), readlink(2), link(2), stat(2), mknod(1M).


 Hewlett-Packard Company            - 1 -   HP-UX 11i Version 2: August 2003