Describe hard and symbolic links. What is the difference between them?

What will be an ideal response?


Hard linked files are direct copies of one another, as they share the same inode and inode number. All hard linked files have the same size, and when one file is modified, the other hard linked files are updated as well. You can hard-link a file an unlimited number of times; however, the hard linked files must reside on the same filesystem. Although hard links share the same inode, deleting a hard linked file does not delete all the other hard linked files.Symbolic links are different than hard links because they do not share the same inode and inode number with their target file; one is merely a pointer to the other and, thus, both files have different sizes. The data blocks in a symbolically linked file contain only the pathname to the target file. When a user edits a symbolically linked file, he is actually editing the target file. Thus, if the target file is deleted, the symbolic link serves no function, as it points to a nonexistent file.

Computer Science & Information Technology

You might also like to view...

Which of the following is the standard operating frequency for 802.11b

What will be an ideal response?

Computer Science & Information Technology

Why does this version of the swap function fail to work? Is there a fix?

``` void swap(int & lhs, int& rhs) { lhs = rhs; rhs = lhs; } ``` a) Of course it works! Just look at it. It clearly swaps the two parameters! b) It fails because the programmer forgot to make the parameters call-by-reference. c) It fails OK, and we can fix it we can just reverse the order of the lines. d) It fails because the first line destroys the old value of lhs without saving it. Then both variables have the old value of rhs in them. e) To fix this, we must save the lhs value in a local variable before making the first assignment indicated, then instead of the second line, assign the rhs the value of the local variable: int local = lhs; lhs = rhs; rhs = local;

Computer Science & Information Technology

All of the following are advantages of VoIP EXCEPT ________

A) low or free cost B) the ability to make calls on a computer from any Wi-Fi hotspot C) excellent reliability during Internet outages or power outages D) portability

Computer Science & Information Technology

The variables declared in a structure definition are called its _________.

Fill in the blank(s) with the appropriate word(s).

Computer Science & Information Technology