In computing, a hard link is a directory entry that associates a name with a file on a file system. (A directory is itself a special kind of file that contains a list of such entries.) The term is used in file systems which allow multiple hard links to be created for the same file. This has the effect of creating multiple names for the same file, causing an aliasing effect: e.g. if the file is opened by one of its names, and changes are made to its content, then these changes will also be visible when the file is opened by an alternative name. By contrast, a soft link on such file systems is not a link to a file itself, but to a file name. This also creates aliasing, but in a different way.
Directories are files, so multiple hard links to directories are possible; however, their unrestricted creation is usually avoided, because of the cyclic structures this may create.
Hard links—that is, multiple directory entries to the same file—are supported by POSIX-compliant and partially POSIX-compliant operating systems, such as GNU/Linux, Android, Apple's Mac OS X, Windows NT4 and later Windows NT operating systems.
Support also depends on the type of file system being used. For instance, the NTFS file system supports hard links, while FAT does not.
Read more about Hard Link: Usage, Link Counter, Example, Limitations of Hard Links
Famous quotes containing the words hard and/or link:
“February is a suitable month for dying. Everything around is dead, the trees black and frozen so that the appearance of green shoots two months hence seems preposterous, the ground hard and cold, the snow dirty, the winter hateful, hanging on too long.”
—Anna Quindlen (b. 1952)
“The lifelong process of caregiving, is the ultimate link between caregivers of all ages. You and I are not just in a phase we will outgrow. This is life—birth, death, and everything in between.... The care continuum is the cycle of life turning full circle in each of our lives. And what we learn when we spoon-feed our babies will echo in our ears as we feed our parents. The point is not to be done. The point is to be ready to do again.”
—Paula C. Lowe (20th century)