A symbolic link (symlink) is a small file that points to another path, like a shortcut. Open the link and you get the file it points to. ln -s makes one: target first, then the link's name.
$ ln -s /var/www/duck-site/logs logs
$ ls -l logs
lrwxrwxrwx 1 sam sam 23 Oct 21 10:02 logs -> /var/www/duck-site/logsThe l at the start and the arrow show it's a link and where it goes. Its own permissions are always shown as rwxrwxrwx and don't matter; the target's permissions are the ones that count.
If the target is moved or deleted, the symlink breaks: it still exists but points at nothing, and opening it says No such file or directory. Deleting a link with rm logs removes only the link, never the target.
A hard link (ln without -s) is a second name for the very same file data. The data stays until the last name is deleted, so deleting the original doesn't break a hard link. Hard links only work within one disk and can't point to folders, so symlinks are what you'll use almost every time.
Linux uses symlinks a lot: python3 might be a link to python3.12, and on many systems /bin links to /usr/bin. readlink -f follows a chain of links to the real file.
Make a symbolic link called docs that points to /srv/shared/docs.
| ln -s target name | Make a symbolic link. |
|---|---|
| ln target name | Make a hard link. |
| name -> target | How ls -l shows a symlink. |
| readlink -f name | The real file at the end of the links. |
| rm name | Removes the link, not the target. |