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Create the directory ~/Desktop/lnk/ and add the file meat to the directory. |
mkdir ~/Desktop/lnk/
cd ~/Desktop/lnk/
touch meat
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Create a hard link called meat-link to the ~/Desktop/lnk/meat file. |
ln meat meat-link
meat and meat-link have separate file names, but they point to the same text file. |
Append the text "I like chicken" to the meat-link file and observe that this text is added to the meat file too. |
echo "I like chicken" >> meat-link
cat meat # returns "I like chicken"
meat and meat-link point to the same text file, so when meat-link is used to update the text file, the same changes will be reflected in the meat file (because they're pointing to the same file). |
Append the text "Peck me" to the meat file and observe that this text is appended to the meat-link file too. |
echo "Peck me" >> meat
cat meat-link
meat and meat-link have different file names but point to the same underlying text file, so changes to the text file will be reflected when both file names are referenced. |
Delete the meat file and verify that the text is still readable in the meat-link file. |
rm meat
cat meat-link
The meat-link file still has the same contents and is not impacted when the meat file is deleted. |
Create a hard link called desktop-link to the ~/Desktop directory. |
You are not allowed to make hard links to directories. The following code will result in an error: ln ~/Desktop desktop-link
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Create the file martha and the symbolic link martha-link to the file. |
touch martha
ln -s martha martha-link
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View a long listing of all files in the directory and explain how this view demonstrates the symbolic link. |
ls -lF
The long listing of files shows the following text: martha-link@ -> martha. martha-link is a symbolic link that 'points to' to the martha file. |
Append the text 'brady bunch' to the martha file and then view the contents of the file with martha-link. |
echo 'brady bunch' >> martha
cat martha-link
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Append the text 'weird show' to the martha-link file and then view the contents of the file with martha. |
echo 'weird show' >> martha-link
cat martha
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Delete the martha file and view the contents of the martha-link file. |
When the martha file is deleted, the martha-link symbolic link points to a file that no longer exists and cannot be used. At this point, the symbolic link is considered to be broken. rm martha
cat martha-link # errors out
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