Question

Explain the difference between a hard link and a soft link in UNIX systems. Are there things that can be done with a hard link that cannot be done with a soft link or vice versa.

Answer 1

Solution:

Difference between hard link and soft link:

Hard Link	Soft Link
A hard link is the mirror copy of the original file	Soft Link is the link to the original file
When the original file is deleted then the hard link will have the data of the original file.	When the original file is deleted then there will be no value in the soft link as it is the actual link to the original file.
Here we can change the permissions if we change the permission of source file	Here we can't change the permissions.

So the above are some differences between hard links and soft links.

Difference between the capability of hard link and soft link:

Hard link	Soft Link
With the help of hard links, we can't link directories.	With the help of a soft link, we can link the directories.
The soft link does not contain any link of the original file but maintains a copy of the content of the original file	Soft link contains the link of the original file, not any data or content of the original file
The hard link works only inside a file system, it can't cross file system's boundaries.	The soft link can work outside the file system means it can cross the boundaries of the file system.

.Above are some things about the capabilities of soft link and hard link.