<P> Symbolic links are different from hard links . Hard links do not link paths on different volumes or file systems, whereas symbolic links may point to any file or directory irrespective of the volumes on which the link and target reside . Hard links always refer to an existing file, whereas symbolic links may contain an arbitrary path that does not point to anything . </P> <P> Symbolic links operate transparently for many operations: programs that read or write to files named by a symbolic link will behave as if operating directly on the target file . However, they have the effect of changing an otherwise hierarchical filesystem from a tree into a directed graph, which can have consequences for such simple operations as figuring out the current directory of a process . Even the Unix...convention for navigating to a directory's parent directory no longer works reliably in the face of symlinks . Some shells heuristically try to uphold the illusion of a tree - shaped hierarchy, but when they do, this causes them to produce different results from other programs that manipulate pathnames without such heuristic, relying on the operating system instead . Programs that need to handle symbolic links specially (e.g., shells and backup utilities) thus need to identify and manipulate them directly . </P> <P> Some Unix as well as Linux distributions use symbolic links extensively in an effort to reorder the file system hierarchy . This is accomplished with several mechanisms, such as variant, context - dependent symbolic links . This offers the opportunity to create a more intuitive or application - specific directory tree and to reorganize the system without having to redesign the core set of system functions and utilities . </P> <P> In POSIX - compliant operating systems, symbolic links are created with the symlink system call . The ln shell command normally uses the link system call, which creates a hard link . When the ln - s flag is specified, the symlink () system call is used instead, creating a symbolic link . Symlinks were introduced in 4.2 BSD Unix from U.C. Berkeley . </P>

What is the use of symbolic link in linux