The Complete Guide to Creating Symbolic Links

Mon-Jan-2023
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A symbolic link, also known as a symlink, is a type of file that acts as a pointer to another file or directory. Creating a symbolic link can be useful if you want to access a file or directory from multiple locations on your file system, or if you want to create a shortcut to a file or directory that’s buried deep in your file system. Here’s a step-by-step guide to creating symbolic links:

  1. Open a command prompt or terminal window. In Windows, you can do this by pressing the Windows key + R and then typing “cmd” in the Run dialog box. On a Mac or Linux system, you can open a terminal window by searching for “terminal” in your applications menu.
  2. Navigate to the directory where you want to create the symbolic link. You can use the “cd” command to change directories. For example, if you want to create a symbolic link in your home directory, you can type “cd ~” (without quotes) to navigate to your home directory.
  3. Type the “ln -s” command, followed by the name of the file or directory you want to create the symbolic link to, and then the name of the symbolic link you want to create. For example, if you want to create a symbolic link to a file called “myfile.txt” and name the symbolic link “mylink”, you would type:
bash
ln -s /path/to/myfile.txt mylink

Replace “/path/to/myfile.txt” with the actual path to your file or directory, and “mylink” with the name you want to give your symbolic link.

  1. Press enter to create the symbolic link. You should see a message that says “symbolic link created” if the operation was successful.
  2. You can now use the symbolic link to access the file or directory from the location where you created it. For example, if you created the symbolic link in your home directory, you can navigate to your home directory and then use the symbolic link to access the file or directory.

That’s it! You’ve successfully created a symbolic link. Remember that symbolic links are just pointers to another file or directory, so if you move or delete the original file or directory, the symbolic link will no longer work.