This is probably an easy question, but I could not find the answer in the man pages. I found some output from the "ls -l" command to have an "l" in front of it, and I found out that stands for a "link", and then I found the "ln" command for creating a link. When I read the man page for ln, by using the command "man ln", I could not find a way to delete the link. How do I delete the link?

Second question, is what is the difference between a "hard" link and a "symbolic" link? Does it matter if I delete a hard link? What about a symbolic link? Are files linked? What about directories? executables?

Use rm like you would for a normal file.

Try googling for the difference between soft and hard.

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Pick a file you don't care about and make both kinds of links. Then delete the original file and then try to open each link. This will tell most of the story.

A hard link is another reference (pointer) to a file. Once created, the link and the original are indistinguishable....except: If you make a soft link to the original, and a hard link, then delete the original, the hard link still finds the file---the soft link does not.

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The "file" command will give you basic information about a file including whether it is a symbolic link or not, for example:

~$ file /etc/rc2.d/S30gdm
/etc/rc2.d/S30gdm: symbolic link to `../init.d/gdm'

To add to what pixellany said, a hard link is an actual directory entry that points to a file stored on disk. hard links can only point to files on the same filesystem. A symlink, on the other hand, points to an existing directory entry rather than an actual file. So if the file is deleted or renamed, the symlink becomes a broken link. A symlink can reference a file on another filesystem or partition.

Hi,

You should look at the 'Rute Tutorial & Exposition' a good admin guide fro GNU/Linux.

Checkout the 'Linux General Help' section of 'Slackware-Links' for other good links. More than just Slackware® links!