Symlink, also called softlink, is a symbolic path indicating the abstract location of another file. In addition, a softlink files has the same role as a Windows shortcut. In this post, i will show you on how to create softlink or symlink on linux server. This steps has been tested on linux CentOS 6.2 x86 server.
Some idea on to differentiates softlink and hard link :
A softlink can be used across files systems. A hard link increases the link count. When you create hard link you can remove the original file without losing data.
To create symlink, simply run this command :
ln -s [target directory or file] [symlink shortcut]
[root@centos62 ~]# ln -s /public/index.html /home/ehowstuff/index.html
After creating the symbolic link above, /public/index.html will point to /home/ehowstuff/index.html.