Links

similar to Microsoft Window's "shortcuts", links are a file that point to another file. Unlike MS Window's version, you can have two type of links: hard links and "soft" (or symbolic) links. Soft links just say "if you're looking for /usr/bin/myprogram, go to /usr/sbin/myprogram". Hard links make a copy of the metadata for the file that is linked - there is still only one set of the actual data for the file, but there are now directory entries in two places which reference it.