[1] : The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (27 SEP 03)

hard link
     
         one of several directory entries which refer to
        the same unix file.  a hard link is created with the "ln"
        link command:
     
        	ln  
     
        where  and  are pathnames within the
        same file system.  hard links to the same file are
        indistinguishable from each other except that they have
        different pathnames.  they all refer to the same inode and
        the inode contains all the information about a file.
     
        the standard ln command does not usually allow you to create a
        hard link to a directory, chiefly because the standard rm
        and rmdir commands do not allow you to delete such a link.
        some systems provide link and unlink commands which give
        direct access to the system calls of the same name, for
        which no such restrictions apply.
     
        normally all hard links to a file must be in the same file
        system because a directory entry just relates a pathname to
        an inode within the same file system.  the only exception is a
        mount point.
     
        the restrictions on hard links to directories and between
        file systems are very common but are not mandated by posix.
        symbolic links are often used instead of hard links because
        they do not suffer from these restrictions.
     
        the space associated with a file is not freed until all the
        hard links to the file are deleted.  this explains why the
        system call to delete a file is called "unlink".
     
        1997-10-22
     
     
see also:
unix file pathnames file system inode rm 
rmdir unlink system calls file system mount point 
posix symbolic links 

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