Symbolic Link

What Does Symbolic Link Mean?

A symbolic link is a type of file that contains reference to another file or directory in the form of a path. It is a file system object that refers and points towards another file system object.

A symbolic link is also known as a symlink or soft link.

Techopedia Explains Symbolic Link

Symbolic links are primarily used by operating systems in pointing or linking file system-level objects. They are mainly designed to help in migrating and porting applications on different operating system platforms. Typically, a symbolic link contains a text string that contains the path to another file or directory. The file or directory it points toward is known as the target and it can exist on a different disk volume or file system. Most operating systems including UNIX, Mac OS and Windows support symbolic links.

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Margaret Rouse

Technology Expert

Margaret is an award-winning technical writer and teacher known for her ability to explain complex technical subjects to a non-technical business audience. Over the past twenty years, her IT definitions have been published by Que in an encyclopedia of technology terms and cited in articles by the New York Times, Time Magazine, USA Today, ZDNet, PC Magazine, and Discovery Magazine. She joined Techopedia in 2011. Margaret's idea of a fun day is helping IT and business professionals learn to speak each other’s highly specialized languages.

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