ln (hard and symbolic links) in Linux CLI - Mini Project: Build & Apply

Creating Hard and Symbolic Links with ln

📖 Scenario: You have a file named report.txt in your home directory. You want to create two types of links to this file: a hard link and a symbolic link. This will help you understand how links work in Linux.

🎯 Goal: Create a hard link named report_hard.txt and a symbolic link named report_sym.txt to the original report.txt file using the ln command.

📋 What You'll Learn

Create a file named report.txt with the exact content: Monthly sales report

Create a hard link named report_hard.txt pointing to report.txt

Create a symbolic link named report_sym.txt pointing to report.txt

Display the list of files with details to show the links

💡 Why This Matters

🌍 Real World

Creating hard and symbolic links is common when managing files and backups in Linux systems. It helps save space and organize files efficiently.

💼 Career

Understanding links is important for system administrators, developers, and anyone working with Linux servers or file systems.

1

Create the original file

Create a file called report.txt with the exact content Monthly sales report using the echo command and output redirection.

Linux CLI

# Create the file report.txt with the content
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use echo "Monthly sales report" > report.txt to create the file with content.

2

Create a hard link

Create a hard link named report_hard.txt pointing to the existing file report.txt using the ln command.

Linux CLI

echo "Monthly sales report" > report.txt
# Create a hard link named report_hard.txt to report.txt
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use ln report.txt report_hard.txt to create a hard link.

3

Create a symbolic link

Create a symbolic link named report_sym.txt pointing to the existing file report.txt using the ln -s command.

Linux CLI

echo "Monthly sales report" > report.txt
ln report.txt report_hard.txt
# Create a symbolic link named report_sym.txt to report.txt
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use ln -s report.txt report_sym.txt to create a symbolic link.

4

List files to verify links

Use the ls -li command to list the files report.txt, report_hard.txt, and report_sym.txt with inode numbers and details to verify the links.

Linux CLI

echo "Monthly sales report" > report.txt
ln report.txt report_hard.txt
ln -s report.txt report_sym.txt
# List files with inode numbers and details
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use ls -li report.txt report_hard.txt report_sym.txt to see inode numbers and link details.