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Linux and Unix Shell Programming
book

Linux and Unix Shell Programming

by David Tansley
December 1999
Beginner
528 pages
11h 10m
English
Pearson Business
Content preview from Linux and Unix Shell Programming

1.9. Symbolic (soft) links

There are two different types of links, soft and hard, but we’ll only be looking at the soft link. A soft link is really a pointer to a file. You’ll find that soft links come in very handy.

1.9.1. Using soft links saves multiple copies of files

Here’s how it works. Say you have a file that contains sales information that is stored in /usr/local/admin/sales, and everybody in sales wants to look at that file. Instead of copying the file to their $HOME areas you can create a file from their $HOME area that ‘points’ to the actual file in /usr/local/admin/sales. Then when you need to update the sales file, you just update that one file, in /usr/local/admin/sales. The files from the sales home directory that users are pointing ...

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ISBN: 0201674726Purchase book