Last Updated: 2024-11-21

The difference is that a symbolic (aka "soft" link will no longer work if you delete the original. However a hard link is a mirror copy of the original file. It survives if you delete the original.

# To create a hard link, give `ln` the default (no -s flag)
$ ln source.file hardlink.file

# To create a symbolic link use the `-s` flags
$ ln -s sourcelfile softlink.file

Other differences:

• Permissions: symbolic link has different file permissions. Hard link has same
• Inode number: symbolic link has new one. Hard link uses the same
• Directories: symbolic links can link them; hard links cannot