CODEWITHSUNDEEP
linuxunix
user2507818
user2507818

Reputation: 3047

linux: what is the difference between these two symbolic link commands

I am trying to create a symbolic link on the server with the command ln -s,

Option 1:

ln -s /home/thejobco/public_html/JCCore/ajax_search /home/thejobco/public_html/demo/typo3conf/ext/

result 1:

ajax_search -> /home/thejobco/public_html/JCCore/ajax_search

Option 2:

ln -s /home/thejobco/public_html/JCCore/ajax_search/ /home/thejobco/public_html/demo/typo3conf/ext/

result 2:

ajax_search -> /home/thejobco/public_html/JCCore/ajax_search/

Question:

I want to know if the above two options are the same, or there is different between them? Option 1 does not have /, option 2 has /, but both of them work well, so just wonder which is the standard way?

Upvotes: 0

Views: 798

Answers (1)

Keith Thompson
Keith Thompson

Reputation: 263617

A symbolic link is implemented as a file containing the name of the target.

There is a minor difference, as you've seen: one of the symlinks has a trailing /, and the other doesn't. You can see the difference in the output of ls -l; on a lower level, this shows up as a difference in the path returned by the readlink() system call.

But there should be no functional difference between them -- as long as the target is a directory. Either can be used to access the linked directory.

For a target that's not a directory, this:

ln -s /etc/motd good_link
ln -s /etc/motd/ bad_link

will result in good_link being a valid way to access /etc/motd, and bad_link resulting in a not a directory error.

Upvotes: 4

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