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Symbolic Links in Linux | Use SymLinks for Anything
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- Опубликовано: 26 июн 2019
- In this video, I go over Symbolic links in Linux. I use symlink for anything where I need certain files to show up at a spot in the file system. This can be incredible useful for linking game save file that you might share through an online cloud storage service like Dropbox without moving the file.
link a single file:
$ ln -s /path/to/file /path/to/symlink
or link a folder using identical syntax:
$ ln -s /path/to/dir /path/to/symlink .
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I'm surprise no one mention stow. That's how I make my symbolic links in Linux.
I'll check this out, I didn't even know this existed ;)
@@ChrisTitusTech stow is a awesome tool. Google for many scripts and how others use stow. Funny thing I didn't know about ln.
Really useful. I am using stow to manage all my configuration files in my Arch Linux.
@@luxucn I just love it how all of us need to specify we're running Arch
@@dejangegic Because that's what a respectable Arch user does. ;)
I have been using symlinks for years. I have one partition and the Documents, Downloads, Music, .PlayOnLinux, .wine, .mozilla, etc folders are in it. I then created a script to remove the original folders in home and create the symlink. I run it on all new installs. That way all my files are where I expect them to be in the new install.
Silly question --- when you do symlinks, can you also write/edit data in those files?
Is it possible to store all applications installed from various sources into one directory in home?
@@yuvrajsingh099 With linux, no. The directory structure splits the files for an application up. Binaries/executables go in /usr/bin, libraries in /lib and extra files like icons and artwork in various folders in /usr. The new snap and flatpack installers do install everything for an application in one folder. But there are issues doing that, chief among them is its hard to upgrade them and have other apps use them.
I know its hard to change if your coming from Windows, but its better in the long run to bite the bullet and learn the new directory structure. I did that 18 years ago, and now there isnt a windows computer in my house.
I've referred to this concept all my career as "pointers" or "indirects". Invaluable. Well explained.
Brilliant and simple explainer Chris, (as usual) I use symbolic links all the time as I store stuff on a personal server and take my chromebook to work and out about, super easy way to access stuff.
Symlinks are great, but you shouldn't overuse them.
1. Don't symlink scripts, just add the directory to PATH
2. Don't symlink lutris games, just change the prefix location
Some good uses for symlinks are linking some files like configs or savegames to a shared partition or cloud storage (as you said at the end of the video) or symlinking different directories to same nfs root etc.
This is the proper way to do it and what I showed is the lazy man way, but in a pinch it can be nice. I agree though, don't overdo it.
can you explain why it's bad practise to symlink scripts
Wow just wow your timing on video releases is always on point I needed this info so badly thanks for the info 👍🏻
Chris you are making me love linus more and more with your tutorials...thank you man....
I knew about them, but I didn't thought of that use cases. Thanks for pointing those out.
Great video man, keep the good work 👌🏼
Thank you for making this video. No video on what is symlinks, was frustrated. you video helped, thanks a lot.
I used to be a BeOS dev back in the day. The concept of symbolic links over hard links is epic.
This is the kind of explanations we need. Practical ones! Thanks
if you're a coder, you may use pnpm for web-dev work. pnpm uses symlinks to more efficiently store node modules (building symlinked folders for multiple projects that share the same packages). cool stuff imo
Hard links are fun too. with soft if you delete the original file/directory the soft link breaks. But with Hard Links , if you delete the original item the hard link still works.
not so much useful these days. but interesting to know about.
And if you make a change to one, it also breaks right?
@@Waitwhat469 not quite. it's just a link pointing to a file or directory, so if you change it on the original file, the link is also changed. With soft links it's only breaks when the original file removed.
I know its been a year since this comment was posted, but here's the difference:
A hard link does not affect a file's Idone (metadata) and it does not break with the linked file deleted.
A soft link affects file metadata and will break if the linked file is deleted.
Wow, great video! Brilliant idea using symlinks for syncing game states on the cloud. Excited to try this out for myself!
I am going to make a symbolic link to this video! :-)
Another good video. Thanks.
I actually have liked moving scripts I make to /usr/bin, and then creating symbolic links in a folder I created '/home/Custom Scripts' so that I keep track of what I've added to the system. This allows me to use the script straight away in the terminal without needing to change the default path, or cluttering my desktop or home directories with scripts, or displaying something less less standard on my desktop.
Great idea John!
@@ChrisTitusTech, thanks! That means a fair bit coming from you. 🙂
@@ChrisTitusTech, I have been thinking about doing it the other way around though, having independent scripts stored in /Custom Scripts, and then having /Custom Scripts on a separate partition(along with a couple of other directories like a Minecraft server folder) with a symbolic link to /home. The reason for having the separate partition for some directories is so that I can have access to the same few files from multiple distros. Keeping it simple, in a roundabout way.
Thankyou. I don't understand why this should take 30 minutes to explain. Nice work.
I use ntfs directory junctions all the time to redirect folders to a unc shares, works perfect.
I use my fingers to count people their age from birthday working all the time. 😅😂🤣😭 Sorry. 😛🙄🤗🤗🤗
Ginger Kitty Project 🤣
I have w10, used to have w7prof and it was better for me. I shared with my son so that he can fix this w10 beast, thanks Chris!
You solved my problem within 4 minutes. Eternally grateful
I do the exact same thing with my game saves and Nextcloud. It's awesome.
One of the best uses for this is in moving VB virtual machines, which is otherwise a nightmare. It also solves the problem in Windows of having a home directory that points to another (data only) drive. Can't believe I haven't been using this since it was created for Windows XP. Would have saved me a lot of headaches.
Symbolic links are sooooo so useful.
Even on Windows, especially if you have 2 drives or more. It is irritating that so many programs use paths to C: and there is no way (or the option is so hidden) to change it to D:.
I use it a lot to redirect so many files to D:, which you can't do if you use shortcuts.
Keep in mind that you can't create a link through other link, you have to use a normal directory to create a link.
Oh yeah... gotta love the power of them Links & Mounts
Use ln -sf if you need to symlink a symlink it is ln for link, -s for symbolic and -f for follow symlinks
Do I understand it correctly that a symbolic link is kind of the equivalent in the directory structure to a pointer in programming? I have known about symbolic links for a few years but I never saw a reason to use it. It is cool though.
Thanks for breaking this one down.
That printer drive me crazy. One day I will do a "office space" on it.
Often you have some MP3s or podcasts or whatever using up a lot of space so you need to move it to a larger drive without losing the files+folders structure. So I start by moving the directory to the larger drive. Then make a symlink and check permissions. Not sure if that is the correct order but it works for me.
Thanks a lot, I'm learning a lot of Linux stuff :D (I'm newbey)
so you linked diablo from 1tb to your nvme. But game launched so fast, does that mean that it also takes space in your nvme? If that is the case, there is no point for using symbolic links, aside from sync, I can just copy instead.
Simple, clear and useful, thumbs up and thank you so much keep up your great job
I use symbolic links for my web projects. I like having a Projects directory in my home directory, but for apache it's usually better to have the directories in something like /var/www that it can just own, so I added myself to the www-data group and made symbolic links in my Projects directory for each project, so I can easily find them while in terminal.
Another time where I needed symlinks was for Diablo 3. The install script on lutris really doesn't like NTFS, but I wanted to keep all of my games on my HDD that I'm keeping NTFS in case I ever need to dualboot windows for anything, so I made a link in the directory the install script made pointing to my old Diablo 3 install and I could select that in the battlenet launcher without any problems at all.
Thank, this helped me symlink a directory in linux.
excellent explanation, straight to the point. thank you
Thank you, Chris. Good work.
I created symbolic link to program file but in a directory different than the one containing said file. Why can't I use this symbolic link by double-clicking, but I can still right-click and select "Run as program" (or similar command - I'm on non-english version of Zorin OS 17.1)?
This is actually helpful, Thank you Chris!!
Very informative video. Keep it coming. Thanks!
Hi Chris, just subscribed and like the video. Great content many thanks!!!!!!
I know it's been 2 years since this video came out but i am gonna use symlinks on my linux instalation to point me to directories i'd need for installing stuff that require me to extract stuff in directory also i can in a way mimic windows file system by using symlinks to make things simpler for my self so i don't have to look all over file system to find folder named .icons for example. I won't move files anywhere all i need is easy way of accessing folders i would otherwise need to go long way and remember path to folder, by using symlinks i don't have to.
Are "rm ~/diablo" and "rm ~/diablo/" different for a symbolic link?
RM is remove command and in that instance there is no difference. However using the LN (link) command there is a difference when referring to the symbolic link itself. Check out the video where I make this and try to make a link using ~/diablo/ as the destination link... you can't because a link needs to be simply ~/diablo
You probably know this by now but rm will _delete contents inside of the directory_ if appending a forward slash at the end. Don't ask how I know. X(
how to do symbolic link for recent file/directory which will be created automatically.
eg: we have 2 directory a and b , we need to refer to the newest directory always . if c is created then it should refer c
I need help with Ubuntu I just installed sosumi and I want to move it to another drive and create a symbolic link to it to have more space on my root file system
That’s cool! I will be using that trick a lot thanks for the tip!
Thanks for the video, could you also please create a video explaining a use case of Hardlinks? I kind of know that it's great when we need to create a link of file without having to consume any more memory, but there's where I am a bit confused, the scenario that you showed today would have been perfect for a hardlink but we used symbolic link.
It will be great if you could help.
Dear Windows users
Symbolic links are NOT shortcuts.
With symbolic links, you can really just access the link and the file system will automatically redirect to the destination directory or file. No special code needed.
With shortcuts, the shortcut itself is a file. If you have a program accessing the shortcut, it just doesn't work unless the program reads what the shortcut is about.
Awesome video. I came to see if I can do this for Apache.
Thanks for this info. It might come useful one day.
Very interesting. Thanks for sharing. Can you produce a video explaining Loops? I have a bunch of loops in my Linux configuration that just looks ugly and I would like a better understanding of what they are and how to safely remove them. Thanks
I just use it for better performance in games. I have both Forza Horizon 5 and It Takes Two, but I can't fit them both on my ssd. So I look for the files with the content that the game streams/loads.the most and move them to the ssd. Solves both missing parts of the map on FH5 and stutter in it2
Is there a way to use symlinks without giving a name to it? for example let's say I have C:/usr/photos D:/usr/photos E:/usr/photos and F:/usr/photos how can I combine them into one meaning if I do Dir C:/usr/photos it should show all the photos from all drives. Or is this only done by using ZFS pools? The reason I asked is that I know servers like facebook store images but those cannot just fit a single drive. Facebooks has many many storage servers. Yet, the path for photos shows as if it's a single folder even though that single fold is on multiple drives it cannot just fit on a single 1tb drive. I just wondered how they do this.
I enjoyed it
What if I need to create a mass amount of symbolic links, like with emulation. Wouldn't I have to go through this process multiple times or is there an easier way? Unfortunately I've tried to look up how to create symbolic links in Linux without having to use the Terminal and found pretty much no results.
And if I have to use the terminal, how do I get it to identify a directory from an external hard drive that's not within the home directory?
Hi thanks for the video. I have a question, I like to have a link from my NAS to the home directory so I can directly store -Pictures- ( large folder) on my NAS.
The NAS is already mounted, how do I go from there?
I use symbolic links all the time!
Nice videooo I always forgot this channel is for new users.
I always link Downloads and Documents folder to my NTFS mount to share it with Windows 10 PRO.
Keep doing this content :)
im hurting, that was awesome
You really are a great guy😘
Hi Chris I create a simlink under my home directory by mistake and now all my desktop folders show up here. I removed all my desktop folders and tried to delete the sim solder which is empty but even under root it keep popping back up, No matter what command line I had tried works. I am in linux mint 20.3 and I don't want to redo my os just to get rid of this. Can you please help thanks
so many thanks of the detail describe
His videos look normal in 1.5x. But great video
Symbolic links are slow on webservers... I have one shared source code and help of Symbolic link im creating multiple client site with different db configuration files although it works but the page load is very slow when compared to actual source code copied to client directory... any idea which would help me solve this issue
Great video, excellent video, i have question for you chris, AMD or INTEL ?? fast answer
Have you noticed any fluidity issues with this system? I mean not due to the fact that the game is stored in a slower drive but due to the fact that all information has to go through this link
damn, i dig that command prompt!
I wanna a create a symbolic link for my files , and then upload to git, but when i upload my files they are paths. I wanna files not paths, any solution? :(
symlinks are so useful for when you want big files on another drive but the program uses it doesn't support setting a different location for it.
It's powerful and it's fun, but be careful about using it too much. One commercial version of UNIX used to build an entire virtual filesystem out of symlinks so that their admin tools always saw the same system no matter where the files actually were residing. It was a nightmare to maintain and troubleshoot.
Does that mean you are gonna play the game from 1to hdd or from 265ssd? I mean experience isnt gonna be the same if played from the 1to hdd
This is only usefull for someone who is already comfortable with the terminal.
How do I do this in the GUI?
So symlinks are kind of like shortcuts on Windows? Instead of copying the whole file/directory, it just points to it's actual location?
Does symbolic link work across mapped drives?
I am using Ubuntu 18.04LTS, on machine A and machine B, both connected to the
same home network, and I have 2 drives (Drive1, Drive2) connected to B.
In A, I mapped and I can see and browse files in both Drive1 and Drive2.
I have file X in Drive 1, and file Y in Drive 2.
For some reason, I created a symbolic link in Drive 1 to link to file Y Drive 2.
I called the name of the symbolic link "Y1" in Drive1.
I observed that:
(i) Symbolic links work/visible in B, for files cross-mapped between Drive1 and Drive2.
(ii) Symbolic links not-work/invisible in A, for files cross-mapped between Drive1 and Drive2.
Anybody knows how to fix (ii) ?
THX!
Chris, why did you have that lag when you started Diablo? (animation of Blizzard)
Do you always have that or had it to do with your recording? It is an old and light-running game.
He did move it to a much slower drive...
Wait, was that Diablo ONE?
I am becoming mad trying to get it to run the HD Mod "Belzebub" with WinE due to DirectX (they have to be... installed, set up? on WinE and is a hell of a job)...
Maybe I should try Lutris, but I have a lot of issues with this laptop since it has GRUB issues with older LinuxOS and other issues with Mint v19...
Ah, man >.
Oh yeah the classic the the hd mod works great on Linux.
@@ChrisTitusTech I really need to tinker a lot to get things to work, then.
Probably I'm still just incompetent after one year and a half on Mint when it comes to technicals.
Lutris has still to be tried out, though, but this laptop (Acer Aspire 3) doesn't seem to get well with Linux.
A question: does Tchernobog (the multiplayer module for HD Belzebub) works? I wasn't able to get it runing neithere here nor under Win7...
so this say liek lets of use custom music in games witoug havign to have a million copys of that same music?
I want to move something onto my HDD too, but its name consists off two words so the terminal recognizes it as a path and another parameter. Does anyone know how to change the name of the HDD?
Good video.
Could you please tell me how can i pimp my command prompt like yours ? ;)
what happen with symbolic links and Dropbox. I read they are not allowed anymore. How do you handle it?
[Solved] I have recently installed a new system, an Ubuntu 22.04 on 120GB SSD, and a 2TB SSD.
And make a symblink from /home/user/Dropbox to the /media/2TB SSD with no problem. Dropbox is working smoothly.
ln -l /media/2TB /home/user/Dropbox
Just make sure /home/user/Dropbox folder it is not created before executing the command "ln -l /media/2TB /home/user/Dropbox".
If it was created just remove it sudo rm/home/user/Dropbox before creating the symbolic link.
Thank you
Why does your console look so fancy
You use "ln" in macOS and BSD too
I'm surprised Lutris doesn't actually manage soft links for you
Excellent!!!
What you guys use to sync cloud services to a directory?
Very shallow. What will happen when you remove files?
So if I started with a blank SSD, formatted it to ext4, linux would see it and I could link the Game directory to the new drive? Steam, Origin, lutris and Epic are all in the folder.
Ted Draper you would move the folder to the drive, completely removing it from the boot drive, and link it back so that everything could seem exactly the same as it was to any apps and you.
@gilkesisking wow, great explanation! Thanks, I'm new to linux and that information is very helpful.
Symbolic links: 2:08
what about android?
Shortcuts all the way!
I wonder why graphical interfaces like Nemo don't offer a possibility to create such links.
Or is there any file browser with such a function?
I think nautilus had it, at least on some systems. On ubuntu 18.04 in nautilus i can confirm that you can right click copy a file and then right click paste a symlink
No, I installed Nautilus and that doesn't have such context menu entry too. Neither on my Notebook nor on my Desktop, both with Linux Mint 19.1.
But weirdly enough I found two entries on my Notebook in Nemo when right clicking a file (that I don't have on my Desktop), one to create a link of it and one to directly create a copy of it in the same folder.
But at least I found another way to create a soft link, via drag&drop while holding CTRL+Shift (that might actually work the same way under Windows).
@@ingog.8424 On nautilus version: 1:3.26.4.0 i get the create link context menu when right clicking a file. Still odd that it doesn't appear on mint...
@@indykoningNow I actually found that Nautilus has a setting called "show action to create symbolic links" which did activate that for the context menu. No sign of such a setting in Nemo.
@@ingog.8424 could you add items to the context menu, i created a "make symlink" option in it which creates the symlink in manjaro xfce
I thought Links and Shortcuts were deleted after a reboot, am I wrong?
@gilkesisking If I did link it to something mounted and then unmount it, is it guaranteed to break? And if so is it permanent? Can I then reboot the machine with the drive mounted on boot?
@gilkesisking ok, Thank you.
Does symlink work on Mac? In principle it should.
They do indeed, same command.
Yes because both are UNIX-based
Linux... the master of self-deception :)
Cesar Linux actually knows the difference, it is the programs that don't (for the most part)
bro is playing games on Linux? damn
Hi Chris. I have a request. I've created a share on my Windows 10 computer (with permissions to allow everyone 'full control' and has plenty of room for backups. I'm trying to configure Ubuntu 18.042 backup program (the one that comes with Ubuntu) to use that share location with no luck. I've googled it and found several suggestions but none seem to work. Currently in the Network Location field, I have entered, "smb://myworkgroupname;myloginname@myipaddress. In the Folder field I've typed the name of the shared folder. All I get is "The network server is not available". I can ping the other computer so I know it's not a simple network mistake. I can get to Windows shares from the file manager just fine but not within backup. Didn't mean to type so much. Could you do a tutorial on creating backups from Ubuntu to a windows computer share location? Thanks so much for considering. PS-Yes the latest Samba is installed on Ubuntu and I've enabled Windows Features SMB 1.0 Services.
Not nice to waste 1:50 minutes of devs.
Linux is the kernel, not the operating system