Overview
| Property/Action | Symbolic link | Junction | Hard link | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| When symbolic link/junction/hard link is deleted... | target remains unchanged | target is deleted | reference counter is decremented; when it reaches 0, the target is deleted | |
| When target is moved | symbolic link becomes invalid | junction becomes invalid | hard link remains valid | |
| Relative path | allowed | not allowed | not applicable | |
| Drive requirement | any drive allowed | any drive allowed | only same drive | |
| Read of target | allowed | allowed | only same drive | |
| Windows | for files | Windows Vista/2008 and later |
no | yes |
| for folders | yes | no | ||
| Unix | for files | yes | not applicable | yes |
| for directories | yes | not applicable | yes | |
Read more about this topic: Softlink, Microsoft Windows