Symbolic link

A symbolic link is a connection between one file name in a file system and another (the 'target'; which does not necessarily need to exist at the time the symbolic link is created), such that references to the first name wind up at the second.

They differ from hard links in that if the target file is deleted, and replaced with a different file, references to the symbolic link will go to the new file.

History

• ITS Reference Manual 1.5 from 1969 mentions links. 1.4 from 1968 doesn't.
• The Multics paper "A General-Purpose File System For Secondary Storage" from 1965 describes symbolic links.
• CTSS supposedly had links.