CINXE.COM

<!DOCTYPE html> <html class="client-nojs vector-feature-language-in-header-enabled vector-feature-language-in-main-page-header-disabled vector-feature-page-tools-pinned-disabled vector-feature-toc-pinned-clientpref-1 vector-feature-main-menu-pinned-disabled vector-feature-limited-width-clientpref-1 vector-feature-limited-width-content-enabled vector-feature-custom-font-size-clientpref-1 vector-feature-appearance-pinned-clientpref-1 vector-feature-night-mode-enabled skin-theme-clientpref-day vector-sticky-header-enabled vector-toc-available" lang="en" dir="ltr"> <head> <meta charset="UTF-8"> <title>Hard link - Wikipedia</title> <script>(function(){var className="client-js vector-feature-language-in-header-enabled vector-feature-language-in-main-page-header-disabled vector-feature-page-tools-pinned-disabled vector-feature-toc-pinned-clientpref-1 vector-feature-main-menu-pinned-disabled vector-feature-limited-width-clientpref-1 vector-feature-limited-width-content-enabled vector-feature-custom-font-size-clientpref-1 vector-feature-appearance-pinned-clientpref-1 vector-feature-night-mode-enabled skin-theme-clientpref-day vector-sticky-header-enabled vector-toc-available";var cookie=document.cookie.match(/(?:^|; )enwikimwclientpreferences=([^;]+)/);if(cookie){cookie[1].split('%2C').forEach(function(pref){className=className.replace(new RegExp('(^| )'+pref.replace(/-clientpref-\w+$|[^\w-]+/g,'')+'-clientpref-\\w+( |$)'),'$1'+pref+'$2');});}document.documentElement.className=className;}());RLCONF={"wgBreakFrames":false,"wgSeparatorTransformTable":["",""],"wgDigitTransformTable":["",""],"wgDefaultDateFormat":"dmy","wgMonthNames":["","January","February","March","April","May","June","July","August","September","October","November","December"],"wgRequestId":"e2155659-3bc1-4cad-a853-b8befe6702a0","wgCanonicalNamespace":"","wgCanonicalSpecialPageName":false,"wgNamespaceNumber":0,"wgPageName":"Hard_link","wgTitle":"Hard link","wgCurRevisionId":1263936984,"wgRevisionId":1263936984,"wgArticleId":496957,"wgIsArticle":true,"wgIsRedirect":false,"wgAction":"view","wgUserName":null,"wgUserGroups":["*"],"wgCategories":["CS1: unfit URL","Articles with short description","Short description is different from Wikidata","Computer file systems"],"wgPageViewLanguage":"en","wgPageContentLanguage":"en","wgPageContentModel":"wikitext","wgRelevantPageName":"Hard_link","wgRelevantArticleId":496957,"wgIsProbablyEditable":true,"wgRelevantPageIsProbablyEditable":true,"wgRestrictionEdit":[],"wgRestrictionMove":[],"wgNoticeProject":"wikipedia","wgCiteReferencePreviewsActive":false,"wgFlaggedRevsParams":{"tags":{"status":{"levels":1}}},"wgMediaViewerOnClick":true,"wgMediaViewerEnabledByDefault":true,"wgPopupsFlags":0,"wgVisualEditor":{"pageLanguageCode":"en","pageLanguageDir":"ltr","pageVariantFallbacks":"en"},"wgMFDisplayWikibaseDescriptions":{"search":true,"watchlist":true,"tagline":false,"nearby":true},"wgWMESchemaEditAttemptStepOversample":false,"wgWMEPageLength":10000,"wgEditSubmitButtonLabelPublish":true,"wgULSPosition":"interlanguage","wgULSisCompactLinksEnabled":false,"wgVector2022LanguageInHeader":true,"wgULSisLanguageSelectorEmpty":false,"wgWikibaseItemId":"Q599843","wgCheckUserClientHintsHeadersJsApi":["brands","architecture","bitness","fullVersionList","mobile","model","platform","platformVersion"],"GEHomepageSuggestedEditsEnableTopics":true,"wgGETopicsMatchModeEnabled":false,"wgGELevelingUpEnabledForUser":false}; RLSTATE={"ext.globalCssJs.user.styles":"ready","site.styles":"ready","user.styles":"ready","ext.globalCssJs.user":"ready","user":"ready","user.options":"loading","ext.cite.styles":"ready","ext.pygments":"ready","skins.vector.search.codex.styles":"ready","skins.vector.styles":"ready","skins.vector.icons":"ready","jquery.makeCollapsible.styles":"ready","ext.wikimediamessages.styles":"ready","ext.visualEditor.desktopArticleTarget.noscript":"ready","ext.uls.interlanguage":"ready","wikibase.client.init":"ready"};RLPAGEMODULES=["ext.cite.ux-enhancements","ext.pygments.view","mediawiki.page.media","site","mediawiki.page.ready","jquery.makeCollapsible","mediawiki.toc","skins.vector.js","ext.centralNotice.geoIP","ext.centralNotice.startUp","ext.gadget.ReferenceTooltips","ext.gadget.switcher","ext.urlShortener.toolbar","ext.centralauth.centralautologin","mmv.bootstrap","ext.popups","ext.visualEditor.desktopArticleTarget.init","ext.visualEditor.targetLoader","ext.echo.centralauth","ext.eventLogging","ext.wikimediaEvents","ext.navigationTiming","ext.uls.interface","ext.cx.eventlogging.campaigns","ext.cx.uls.quick.actions","wikibase.client.vector-2022","ext.checkUser.clientHints","ext.quicksurveys.init","ext.growthExperiments.SuggestedEditSession"];</script> <script>(RLQ=window.RLQ||[]).push(function(){mw.loader.impl(function(){return["user.options@12s5i",function($,jQuery,require,module){mw.user.tokens.set({"patrolToken":"+\\","watchToken":"+\\","csrfToken":"+\\"}); }];});});</script> <link rel="stylesheet" href="/w/load.php?lang=en&modules=ext.cite.styles%7Cext.pygments%7Cext.uls.interlanguage%7Cext.visualEditor.desktopArticleTarget.noscript%7Cext.wikimediamessages.styles%7Cjquery.makeCollapsible.styles%7Cskins.vector.icons%2Cstyles%7Cskins.vector.search.codex.styles%7Cwikibase.client.init&only=styles&skin=vector-2022"> <script async="" src="/w/load.php?lang=en&modules=startup&only=scripts&raw=1&skin=vector-2022"></script> <meta name="ResourceLoaderDynamicStyles" content=""> <link rel="stylesheet" href="/w/load.php?lang=en&modules=site.styles&only=styles&skin=vector-2022"> <meta name="generator" content="MediaWiki 1.44.0-wmf.22"> <meta name="referrer" content="origin"> <meta name="referrer" content="origin-when-cross-origin"> <meta name="robots" content="max-image-preview:standard"> <meta name="format-detection" content="telephone=no"> <meta name="viewport" content="width=1120"> <meta property="og:title" content="Hard link - Wikipedia"> <meta property="og:type" content="website"> <link rel="preconnect" href="//upload.wikimedia.org"> <link rel="alternate" media="only screen and (max-width: 640px)" href="//en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hard_link"> <link rel="alternate" type="application/x-wiki" title="Edit this page" href="/w/index.php?title=Hard_link&action=edit"> <link rel="apple-touch-icon" href="/static/apple-touch/wikipedia.png"> <link rel="icon" href="/static/favicon/wikipedia.ico"> <link rel="search" type="application/opensearchdescription+xml" href="/w/rest.php/v1/search" title="Wikipedia (en)"> <link rel="EditURI" type="application/rsd+xml" href="//en.wikipedia.org/w/api.php?action=rsd"> <link rel="canonical" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hard_link"> <link rel="license" href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en"> <link rel="alternate" type="application/atom+xml" title="Wikipedia Atom feed" href="/w/index.php?title=Special:RecentChanges&feed=atom"> <link rel="dns-prefetch" href="//meta.wikimedia.org" /> <link rel="dns-prefetch" href="login.wikimedia.org"> </head> <body class="skin--responsive skin-vector skin-vector-search-vue mediawiki ltr sitedir-ltr mw-hide-empty-elt ns-0 ns-subject mw-editable page-Hard_link rootpage-Hard_link skin-vector-2022 action-view"><a class="mw-jump-link" href="#bodyContent">Jump to content</a> <div class="vector-header-container"> <header class="vector-header mw-header"> <div class="vector-header-start"> <nav class="vector-main-menu-landmark" aria-label="Site"> <div id="vector-main-menu-dropdown" class="vector-dropdown vector-main-menu-dropdown vector-button-flush-left vector-button-flush-right" title="Main menu" > <input type="checkbox" id="vector-main-menu-dropdown-checkbox" role="button" aria-haspopup="true" data-event-name="ui.dropdown-vector-main-menu-dropdown" class="vector-dropdown-checkbox " aria-label="Main menu" > <label id="vector-main-menu-dropdown-label" for="vector-main-menu-dropdown-checkbox" class="vector-dropdown-label cdx-button cdx-button--fake-button cdx-button--fake-button--enabled cdx-button--weight-quiet cdx-button--icon-only " aria-hidden="true" ><span class="vector-icon mw-ui-icon-menu mw-ui-icon-wikimedia-menu"></span> <span class="vector-dropdown-label-text">Main menu</span> </label> <div class="vector-dropdown-content"> <div id="vector-main-menu-unpinned-container" class="vector-unpinned-container"> <div id="vector-main-menu" class="vector-main-menu vector-pinnable-element"> <div class="vector-pinnable-header vector-main-menu-pinnable-header vector-pinnable-header-unpinned" data-feature-name="main-menu-pinned" data-pinnable-element-id="vector-main-menu" data-pinned-container-id="vector-main-menu-pinned-container" data-unpinned-container-id="vector-main-menu-unpinned-container" > <div class="vector-pinnable-header-label">Main menu</div> <button class="vector-pinnable-header-toggle-button vector-pinnable-header-pin-button" data-event-name="pinnable-header.vector-main-menu.pin">move to sidebar</button> <button class="vector-pinnable-header-toggle-button vector-pinnable-header-unpin-button" data-event-name="pinnable-header.vector-main-menu.unpin">hide</button> </div> <div id="p-navigation" class="vector-menu mw-portlet mw-portlet-navigation" > <div class="vector-menu-heading"> Navigation </div> <div class="vector-menu-content"> <ul class="vector-menu-content-list"> <li id="n-mainpage-description" class="mw-list-item"><a href="/wiki/Main_Page" title="Visit the main page [z]" accesskey="z"><span>Main page</span></a></li><li id="n-contents" class="mw-list-item"><a href="/wiki/Wikipedia:Contents" title="Guides to browsing Wikipedia"><span>Contents</span></a></li><li id="n-currentevents" class="mw-list-item"><a href="/wiki/Portal:Current_events" title="Articles related to current events"><span>Current events</span></a></li><li id="n-randompage" class="mw-list-item"><a href="/wiki/Special:Random" title="Visit a randomly selected article [x]" accesskey="x"><span>Random article</span></a></li><li id="n-aboutsite" class="mw-list-item"><a href="/wiki/Wikipedia:About" title="Learn about Wikipedia and how it works"><span>About Wikipedia</span></a></li><li id="n-contactpage" class="mw-list-item"><a href="//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Contact_us" title="How to contact Wikipedia"><span>Contact us</span></a></li> </ul> </div> </div> <div id="p-interaction" class="vector-menu mw-portlet mw-portlet-interaction" > <div class="vector-menu-heading"> Contribute </div> <div class="vector-menu-content"> <ul class="vector-menu-content-list"> <li id="n-help" class="mw-list-item"><a href="/wiki/Help:Contents" title="Guidance on how to use and edit Wikipedia"><span>Help</span></a></li><li id="n-introduction" class="mw-list-item"><a href="/wiki/Help:Introduction" title="Learn how to edit Wikipedia"><span>Learn to edit</span></a></li><li id="n-portal" class="mw-list-item"><a href="/wiki/Wikipedia:Community_portal" title="The hub for editors"><span>Community portal</span></a></li><li id="n-recentchanges" class="mw-list-item"><a href="/wiki/Special:RecentChanges" title="A list of recent changes to Wikipedia [r]" accesskey="r"><span>Recent changes</span></a></li><li id="n-upload" class="mw-list-item"><a href="/wiki/Wikipedia:File_upload_wizard" title="Add images or other media for use on Wikipedia"><span>Upload file</span></a></li><li id="n-specialpages" class="mw-list-item"><a href="/wiki/Special:SpecialPages"><span>Special pages</span></a></li> </ul> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </nav> <a href="/wiki/Main_Page" class="mw-logo"> <img class="mw-logo-icon" src="/static/images/icons/wikipedia.png" alt="" aria-hidden="true" height="50" width="50"> <span class="mw-logo-container skin-invert"> <img class="mw-logo-wordmark" alt="Wikipedia" src="/static/images/mobile/copyright/wikipedia-wordmark-en.svg" style="width: 7.5em; height: 1.125em;"> <img class="mw-logo-tagline" alt="The Free Encyclopedia" src="/static/images/mobile/copyright/wikipedia-tagline-en.svg" width="117" height="13" style="width: 7.3125em; height: 0.8125em;"> </span> </a> </div> <div class="vector-header-end"> <div id="p-search" role="search" class="vector-search-box-vue vector-search-box-collapses vector-search-box-show-thumbnail vector-search-box-auto-expand-width vector-search-box"> <a href="/wiki/Special:Search" class="cdx-button cdx-button--fake-button cdx-button--fake-button--enabled cdx-button--weight-quiet cdx-button--icon-only search-toggle" title="Search Wikipedia [f]" accesskey="f"><span class="vector-icon mw-ui-icon-search mw-ui-icon-wikimedia-search"></span> <span>Search</span> </a> <div class="vector-typeahead-search-container"> <div class="cdx-typeahead-search cdx-typeahead-search--show-thumbnail cdx-typeahead-search--auto-expand-width"> <form action="/w/index.php" id="searchform" class="cdx-search-input cdx-search-input--has-end-button"> <div id="simpleSearch" class="cdx-search-input__input-wrapper" data-search-loc="header-moved"> <div class="cdx-text-input cdx-text-input--has-start-icon"> <input class="cdx-text-input__input" type="search" name="search" placeholder="Search Wikipedia" aria-label="Search Wikipedia" autocapitalize="sentences" title="Search Wikipedia [f]" accesskey="f" id="searchInput" > <span class="cdx-text-input__icon cdx-text-input__start-icon"></span> </div> <input type="hidden" name="title" value="Special:Search"> </div> <button class="cdx-button cdx-search-input__end-button">Search</button> </form> </div> </div> </div> <nav class="vector-user-links vector-user-links-wide" aria-label="Personal tools"> <div class="vector-user-links-main"> <div id="p-vector-user-menu-preferences" class="vector-menu mw-portlet emptyPortlet" > <div class="vector-menu-content"> <ul class="vector-menu-content-list"> </ul> </div> </div> <div id="p-vector-user-menu-userpage" class="vector-menu mw-portlet emptyPortlet" > <div class="vector-menu-content"> <ul class="vector-menu-content-list"> </ul> </div> </div> <nav class="vector-appearance-landmark" aria-label="Appearance"> <div id="vector-appearance-dropdown" class="vector-dropdown " title="Change the appearance of the page's font size, width, and color" > <input type="checkbox" id="vector-appearance-dropdown-checkbox" role="button" aria-haspopup="true" data-event-name="ui.dropdown-vector-appearance-dropdown" class="vector-dropdown-checkbox " aria-label="Appearance" > <label id="vector-appearance-dropdown-label" for="vector-appearance-dropdown-checkbox" class="vector-dropdown-label cdx-button cdx-button--fake-button cdx-button--fake-button--enabled cdx-button--weight-quiet cdx-button--icon-only " aria-hidden="true" ><span class="vector-icon mw-ui-icon-appearance mw-ui-icon-wikimedia-appearance"></span> <span class="vector-dropdown-label-text">Appearance</span> </label> <div class="vector-dropdown-content"> <div id="vector-appearance-unpinned-container" class="vector-unpinned-container"> </div> </div> </div> </nav> <div id="p-vector-user-menu-notifications" class="vector-menu mw-portlet emptyPortlet" > <div class="vector-menu-content"> <ul class="vector-menu-content-list"> </ul> </div> </div> <div id="p-vector-user-menu-overflow" class="vector-menu mw-portlet" > <div class="vector-menu-content"> <ul class="vector-menu-content-list"> <li id="pt-sitesupport-2" class="user-links-collapsible-item mw-list-item user-links-collapsible-item"><a data-mw="interface" href="https://donate.wikimedia.org/?wmf_source=donate&wmf_medium=sidebar&wmf_campaign=en.wikipedia.org&uselang=en" class=""><span>Donate</span></a> </li> <li id="pt-createaccount-2" class="user-links-collapsible-item mw-list-item user-links-collapsible-item"><a data-mw="interface" href="/w/index.php?title=Special:CreateAccount&returnto=Hard+link" title="You are encouraged to create an account and log in; however, it is not mandatory" class=""><span>Create account</span></a> </li> <li id="pt-login-2" class="user-links-collapsible-item mw-list-item user-links-collapsible-item"><a data-mw="interface" href="/w/index.php?title=Special:UserLogin&returnto=Hard+link" title="You're encouraged to log in; however, it's not mandatory. [o]" accesskey="o" class=""><span>Log in</span></a> </li> </ul> </div> </div> </div> <div id="vector-user-links-dropdown" class="vector-dropdown vector-user-menu vector-button-flush-right vector-user-menu-logged-out" title="Log in and more options" > <input type="checkbox" id="vector-user-links-dropdown-checkbox" role="button" aria-haspopup="true" data-event-name="ui.dropdown-vector-user-links-dropdown" class="vector-dropdown-checkbox " aria-label="Personal tools" > <label id="vector-user-links-dropdown-label" for="vector-user-links-dropdown-checkbox" class="vector-dropdown-label cdx-button cdx-button--fake-button cdx-button--fake-button--enabled cdx-button--weight-quiet cdx-button--icon-only " aria-hidden="true" ><span class="vector-icon mw-ui-icon-ellipsis mw-ui-icon-wikimedia-ellipsis"></span> <span class="vector-dropdown-label-text">Personal tools</span> </label> <div class="vector-dropdown-content"> <div id="p-personal" class="vector-menu mw-portlet mw-portlet-personal user-links-collapsible-item" title="User menu" > <div class="vector-menu-content"> <ul class="vector-menu-content-list"> <li id="pt-sitesupport" class="user-links-collapsible-item mw-list-item"><a href="https://donate.wikimedia.org/?wmf_source=donate&wmf_medium=sidebar&wmf_campaign=en.wikipedia.org&uselang=en"><span>Donate</span></a></li><li id="pt-createaccount" class="user-links-collapsible-item mw-list-item"><a href="/w/index.php?title=Special:CreateAccount&returnto=Hard+link" title="You are encouraged to create an account and log in; however, it is not mandatory"><span class="vector-icon mw-ui-icon-userAdd mw-ui-icon-wikimedia-userAdd"></span> <span>Create account</span></a></li><li id="pt-login" class="user-links-collapsible-item mw-list-item"><a href="/w/index.php?title=Special:UserLogin&returnto=Hard+link" title="You're encouraged to log in; however, it's not mandatory. [o]" accesskey="o"><span class="vector-icon mw-ui-icon-logIn mw-ui-icon-wikimedia-logIn"></span> <span>Log in</span></a></li> </ul> </div> </div> <div id="p-user-menu-anon-editor" class="vector-menu mw-portlet mw-portlet-user-menu-anon-editor" > <div class="vector-menu-heading"> Pages for logged out editors <a href="/wiki/Help:Introduction" aria-label="Learn more about editing"><span>learn more</span></a> </div> <div class="vector-menu-content"> <ul class="vector-menu-content-list"> <li id="pt-anoncontribs" class="mw-list-item"><a href="/wiki/Special:MyContributions" title="A list of edits made from this IP address [y]" accesskey="y"><span>Contributions</span></a></li><li id="pt-anontalk" class="mw-list-item"><a href="/wiki/Special:MyTalk" title="Discussion about edits from this IP address [n]" accesskey="n"><span>Talk</span></a></li> </ul> </div> </div> </div> </div> </nav> </div> </header> </div> <div class="mw-page-container"> <div class="mw-page-container-inner"> <div class="vector-sitenotice-container"> <div id="siteNotice"></div> </div> <div class="vector-column-start"> <div class="vector-main-menu-container"> <div id="mw-navigation"> <nav id="mw-panel" class="vector-main-menu-landmark" aria-label="Site"> <div id="vector-main-menu-pinned-container" class="vector-pinned-container"> </div> </nav> </div> </div> <div class="vector-sticky-pinned-container"> <nav id="mw-panel-toc" aria-label="Contents" data-event-name="ui.sidebar-toc" class="mw-table-of-contents-container vector-toc-landmark"> <div id="vector-toc-pinned-container" class="vector-pinned-container"> <div id="vector-toc" class="vector-toc vector-pinnable-element"> <div class="vector-pinnable-header vector-toc-pinnable-header vector-pinnable-header-pinned" data-feature-name="toc-pinned" data-pinnable-element-id="vector-toc" > <h2 class="vector-pinnable-header-label">Contents</h2> <button class="vector-pinnable-header-toggle-button vector-pinnable-header-pin-button" data-event-name="pinnable-header.vector-toc.pin">move to sidebar</button> <button class="vector-pinnable-header-toggle-button vector-pinnable-header-unpin-button" data-event-name="pinnable-header.vector-toc.unpin">hide</button> </div> <ul class="vector-toc-contents" id="mw-panel-toc-list"> <li id="toc-mw-content-text" class="vector-toc-list-item vector-toc-level-1"> <a href="#" class="vector-toc-link"> <div class="vector-toc-text">(Top)</div> </a> </li> <li id="toc-Operation" class="vector-toc-list-item vector-toc-level-1 vector-toc-list-item-expanded"> <a class="vector-toc-link" href="#Operation"> <div class="vector-toc-text"> <span class="vector-toc-numb">1</span> <span>Operation</span> </div> </a> <button aria-controls="toc-Operation-sublist" class="cdx-button cdx-button--weight-quiet cdx-button--icon-only vector-toc-toggle"> <span class="vector-icon mw-ui-icon-wikimedia-expand"></span> <span>Toggle Operation subsection</span> </button> <ul id="toc-Operation-sublist" class="vector-toc-list"> <li id="toc-Reference_counting" class="vector-toc-list-item vector-toc-level-2"> <a class="vector-toc-link" href="#Reference_counting"> <div class="vector-toc-text"> <span class="vector-toc-numb">1.1</span> <span>Reference counting</span> </div> </a> <ul id="toc-Reference_counting-sublist" class="vector-toc-list"> </ul> </li> </ul> </li> <li id="toc-Limitations" class="vector-toc-list-item vector-toc-level-1 vector-toc-list-item-expanded"> <a class="vector-toc-link" href="#Limitations"> <div class="vector-toc-text"> <span class="vector-toc-numb">2</span> <span>Limitations</span> </div> </a> <ul id="toc-Limitations-sublist" class="vector-toc-list"> </ul> </li> <li id="toc-Platform_support" class="vector-toc-list-item vector-toc-level-1 vector-toc-list-item-expanded"> <a class="vector-toc-link" href="#Platform_support"> <div class="vector-toc-text"> <span class="vector-toc-numb">3</span> <span>Platform support</span> </div> </a> <ul id="toc-Platform_support-sublist" class="vector-toc-list"> </ul> </li> <li id="toc-See_also" class="vector-toc-list-item vector-toc-level-1 vector-toc-list-item-expanded"> <a class="vector-toc-link" href="#See_also"> <div class="vector-toc-text"> <span class="vector-toc-numb">4</span> <span>See also</span> </div> </a> <ul id="toc-See_also-sublist" class="vector-toc-list"> </ul> </li> <li id="toc-References" class="vector-toc-list-item vector-toc-level-1 vector-toc-list-item-expanded"> <a class="vector-toc-link" href="#References"> <div class="vector-toc-text"> <span class="vector-toc-numb">5</span> <span>References</span> </div> </a> <ul id="toc-References-sublist" class="vector-toc-list"> </ul> </li> </ul> </div> </div> </nav> </div> </div> <div class="mw-content-container"> <main id="content" class="mw-body"> <header class="mw-body-header vector-page-titlebar"> <nav aria-label="Contents" class="vector-toc-landmark"> <div id="vector-page-titlebar-toc" class="vector-dropdown vector-page-titlebar-toc vector-button-flush-left" title="Table of Contents" > <input type="checkbox" id="vector-page-titlebar-toc-checkbox" role="button" aria-haspopup="true" data-event-name="ui.dropdown-vector-page-titlebar-toc" class="vector-dropdown-checkbox " aria-label="Toggle the table of contents" > <label id="vector-page-titlebar-toc-label" for="vector-page-titlebar-toc-checkbox" class="vector-dropdown-label cdx-button cdx-button--fake-button cdx-button--fake-button--enabled cdx-button--weight-quiet cdx-button--icon-only " aria-hidden="true" ><span class="vector-icon mw-ui-icon-listBullet mw-ui-icon-wikimedia-listBullet"></span> <span class="vector-dropdown-label-text">Toggle the table of contents</span> </label> <div class="vector-dropdown-content"> <div id="vector-page-titlebar-toc-unpinned-container" class="vector-unpinned-container"> </div> </div> </div> </nav> <h1 id="firstHeading" class="firstHeading mw-first-heading"><span class="mw-page-title-main">Hard link</span></h1> <div id="p-lang-btn" class="vector-dropdown mw-portlet mw-portlet-lang" > <input type="checkbox" id="p-lang-btn-checkbox" role="button" aria-haspopup="true" data-event-name="ui.dropdown-p-lang-btn" class="vector-dropdown-checkbox mw-interlanguage-selector" aria-label="Go to an article in another language. Available in 15 languages" > <label id="p-lang-btn-label" for="p-lang-btn-checkbox" class="vector-dropdown-label cdx-button cdx-button--fake-button cdx-button--fake-button--enabled cdx-button--weight-quiet cdx-button--action-progressive mw-portlet-lang-heading-15" aria-hidden="true" ><span class="vector-icon mw-ui-icon-language-progressive mw-ui-icon-wikimedia-language-progressive"></span> <span class="vector-dropdown-label-text">15 languages</span> </label> <div class="vector-dropdown-content"> <div class="vector-menu-content"> <ul class="vector-menu-content-list"> <li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-ar mw-list-item"><a href="https://ar.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D9%88%D8%B5%D9%84%D8%A9_%D8%B5%D9%84%D8%A8%D8%A9" title="وصلة صلبة – Arabic" lang="ar" hreflang="ar" data-title="وصلة صلبة" data-language-autonym="العربية" data-language-local-name="Arabic" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>العربية</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-cs mw-list-item"><a href="https://cs.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pevn%C3%BD_odkaz" title="Pevný odkaz – Czech" lang="cs" hreflang="cs" data-title="Pevný odkaz" data-language-autonym="Čeština" data-language-local-name="Czech" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Čeština</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-de mw-list-item"><a href="https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hardlink" title="Hardlink – German" lang="de" hreflang="de" data-title="Hardlink" data-language-autonym="Deutsch" data-language-local-name="German" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Deutsch</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-es mw-list-item"><a href="https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enlace_duro" title="Enlace duro – Spanish" lang="es" hreflang="es" data-title="Enlace duro" data-language-autonym="Español" data-language-local-name="Spanish" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Español</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-fr mw-list-item"><a href="https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lien_physique" title="Lien physique – French" lang="fr" hreflang="fr" data-title="Lien physique" data-language-autonym="Français" data-language-local-name="French" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Français</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-ko mw-list-item"><a href="https://ko.wikipedia.org/wiki/%ED%95%98%EB%93%9C_%EB%A7%81%ED%81%AC" title="하드 링크 – Korean" lang="ko" hreflang="ko" data-title="하드 링크" data-language-autonym="한국어" data-language-local-name="Korean" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>한국어</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-it mw-list-item"><a href="https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collegamento_fisico" title="Collegamento fisico – Italian" lang="it" hreflang="it" data-title="Collegamento fisico" data-language-autonym="Italiano" data-language-local-name="Italian" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Italiano</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-hu mw-list-item"><a href="https://hu.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hard_link" title="Hard link – Hungarian" lang="hu" hreflang="hu" data-title="Hard link" data-language-autonym="Magyar" data-language-local-name="Hungarian" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Magyar</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-ja mw-list-item"><a href="https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%83%8F%E3%83%BC%E3%83%89%E3%83%AA%E3%83%B3%E3%82%AF" title="ハードリンク – Japanese" lang="ja" hreflang="ja" data-title="ハードリンク" data-language-autonym="日本語" data-language-local-name="Japanese" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>日本語</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-no mw-list-item"><a href="https://no.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fast_kobling" title="Fast kobling – Norwegian Bokmål" lang="nb" hreflang="nb" data-title="Fast kobling" data-language-autonym="Norsk bokmål" data-language-local-name="Norwegian Bokmål" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Norsk bokmål</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-pl mw-list-item"><a href="https://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dowi%C4%85zanie_twarde" title="Dowiązanie twarde – Polish" lang="pl" hreflang="pl" data-title="Dowiązanie twarde" data-language-autonym="Polski" data-language-local-name="Polish" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Polski</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-pt mw-list-item"><a href="https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Link_f%C3%ADsico" title="Link físico – Portuguese" lang="pt" hreflang="pt" data-title="Link físico" data-language-autonym="Português" data-language-local-name="Portuguese" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Português</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-ru mw-list-item"><a href="https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%96%D1%91%D1%81%D1%82%D0%BA%D0%B0%D1%8F_%D1%81%D1%81%D1%8B%D0%BB%D0%BA%D0%B0" title="Жёсткая ссылка – Russian" lang="ru" hreflang="ru" data-title="Жёсткая ссылка" data-language-autonym="Русский" data-language-local-name="Russian" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Русский</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-tr mw-list-item"><a href="https://tr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hard_Link" title="Hard Link – Turkish" lang="tr" hreflang="tr" data-title="Hard Link" data-language-autonym="Türkçe" data-language-local-name="Turkish" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Türkçe</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-zh mw-list-item"><a href="https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E7%A1%AC%E9%93%BE%E6%8E%A5" title="硬链接 – Chinese" lang="zh" hreflang="zh" data-title="硬链接" data-language-autonym="中文" data-language-local-name="Chinese" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>中文</span></a></li> </ul> <div class="after-portlet after-portlet-lang"><span class="wb-langlinks-edit wb-langlinks-link"><a href="https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Special:EntityPage/Q599843#sitelinks-wikipedia" title="Edit interlanguage links" class="wbc-editpage">Edit links</a></span></div> </div> </div> </div> </header> <div class="vector-page-toolbar"> <div class="vector-page-toolbar-container"> <div id="left-navigation"> <nav aria-label="Namespaces"> <div id="p-associated-pages" class="vector-menu vector-menu-tabs mw-portlet mw-portlet-associated-pages" > <div class="vector-menu-content"> <ul class="vector-menu-content-list"> <li id="ca-nstab-main" class="selected vector-tab-noicon mw-list-item"><a href="/wiki/Hard_link" title="View the content page [c]" accesskey="c"><span>Article</span></a></li><li id="ca-talk" class="vector-tab-noicon mw-list-item"><a href="/wiki/Talk:Hard_link" rel="discussion" title="Discuss improvements to the content page [t]" accesskey="t"><span>Talk</span></a></li> </ul> </div> </div> <div id="vector-variants-dropdown" class="vector-dropdown emptyPortlet" > <input type="checkbox" id="vector-variants-dropdown-checkbox" role="button" aria-haspopup="true" data-event-name="ui.dropdown-vector-variants-dropdown" class="vector-dropdown-checkbox " aria-label="Change language variant" > <label id="vector-variants-dropdown-label" for="vector-variants-dropdown-checkbox" class="vector-dropdown-label cdx-button cdx-button--fake-button cdx-button--fake-button--enabled cdx-button--weight-quiet" aria-hidden="true" ><span class="vector-dropdown-label-text">English</span> </label> <div class="vector-dropdown-content"> <div id="p-variants" class="vector-menu mw-portlet mw-portlet-variants emptyPortlet" > <div class="vector-menu-content"> <ul class="vector-menu-content-list"> </ul> </div> </div> </div> </div> </nav> </div> <div id="right-navigation" class="vector-collapsible"> <nav aria-label="Views"> <div id="p-views" class="vector-menu vector-menu-tabs mw-portlet mw-portlet-views" > <div class="vector-menu-content"> <ul class="vector-menu-content-list"> <li id="ca-view" class="selected vector-tab-noicon mw-list-item"><a href="/wiki/Hard_link"><span>Read</span></a></li><li id="ca-edit" class="vector-tab-noicon mw-list-item"><a href="/w/index.php?title=Hard_link&action=edit" title="Edit this page [e]" accesskey="e"><span>Edit</span></a></li><li id="ca-history" class="vector-tab-noicon mw-list-item"><a href="/w/index.php?title=Hard_link&action=history" title="Past revisions of this page [h]" accesskey="h"><span>View history</span></a></li> </ul> </div> </div> </nav> <nav class="vector-page-tools-landmark" aria-label="Page tools"> <div id="vector-page-tools-dropdown" class="vector-dropdown vector-page-tools-dropdown" > <input type="checkbox" id="vector-page-tools-dropdown-checkbox" role="button" aria-haspopup="true" data-event-name="ui.dropdown-vector-page-tools-dropdown" class="vector-dropdown-checkbox " aria-label="Tools" > <label id="vector-page-tools-dropdown-label" for="vector-page-tools-dropdown-checkbox" class="vector-dropdown-label cdx-button cdx-button--fake-button cdx-button--fake-button--enabled cdx-button--weight-quiet" aria-hidden="true" ><span class="vector-dropdown-label-text">Tools</span> </label> <div class="vector-dropdown-content"> <div id="vector-page-tools-unpinned-container" class="vector-unpinned-container"> <div id="vector-page-tools" class="vector-page-tools vector-pinnable-element"> <div class="vector-pinnable-header vector-page-tools-pinnable-header vector-pinnable-header-unpinned" data-feature-name="page-tools-pinned" data-pinnable-element-id="vector-page-tools" data-pinned-container-id="vector-page-tools-pinned-container" data-unpinned-container-id="vector-page-tools-unpinned-container" > <div class="vector-pinnable-header-label">Tools</div> <button class="vector-pinnable-header-toggle-button vector-pinnable-header-pin-button" data-event-name="pinnable-header.vector-page-tools.pin">move to sidebar</button> <button class="vector-pinnable-header-toggle-button vector-pinnable-header-unpin-button" data-event-name="pinnable-header.vector-page-tools.unpin">hide</button> </div> <div id="p-cactions" class="vector-menu mw-portlet mw-portlet-cactions emptyPortlet vector-has-collapsible-items" title="More options" > <div class="vector-menu-heading"> Actions </div> <div class="vector-menu-content"> <ul class="vector-menu-content-list"> <li id="ca-more-view" class="selected vector-more-collapsible-item mw-list-item"><a href="/wiki/Hard_link"><span>Read</span></a></li><li id="ca-more-edit" class="vector-more-collapsible-item mw-list-item"><a href="/w/index.php?title=Hard_link&action=edit" title="Edit this page [e]" accesskey="e"><span>Edit</span></a></li><li id="ca-more-history" class="vector-more-collapsible-item mw-list-item"><a href="/w/index.php?title=Hard_link&action=history"><span>View history</span></a></li> </ul> </div> </div> <div id="p-tb" class="vector-menu mw-portlet mw-portlet-tb" > <div class="vector-menu-heading"> General </div> <div class="vector-menu-content"> <ul class="vector-menu-content-list"> <li id="t-whatlinkshere" class="mw-list-item"><a href="/wiki/Special:WhatLinksHere/Hard_link" title="List of all English Wikipedia pages containing links to this page [j]" accesskey="j"><span>What links here</span></a></li><li id="t-recentchangeslinked" class="mw-list-item"><a href="/wiki/Special:RecentChangesLinked/Hard_link" rel="nofollow" title="Recent changes in pages linked from this page [k]" accesskey="k"><span>Related changes</span></a></li><li id="t-upload" class="mw-list-item"><a href="//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:File_Upload_Wizard" title="Upload files [u]" accesskey="u"><span>Upload file</span></a></li><li id="t-permalink" class="mw-list-item"><a href="/w/index.php?title=Hard_link&oldid=1263936984" title="Permanent link to this revision of this page"><span>Permanent link</span></a></li><li id="t-info" class="mw-list-item"><a href="/w/index.php?title=Hard_link&action=info" title="More information about this page"><span>Page information</span></a></li><li id="t-cite" class="mw-list-item"><a href="/w/index.php?title=Special:CiteThisPage&page=Hard_link&id=1263936984&wpFormIdentifier=titleform" title="Information on how to cite this page"><span>Cite this page</span></a></li><li id="t-urlshortener" class="mw-list-item"><a href="/w/index.php?title=Special:UrlShortener&url=https%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FHard_link"><span>Get shortened URL</span></a></li><li id="t-urlshortener-qrcode" class="mw-list-item"><a href="/w/index.php?title=Special:QrCode&url=https%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FHard_link"><span>Download QR code</span></a></li> </ul> </div> </div> <div id="p-coll-print_export" class="vector-menu mw-portlet mw-portlet-coll-print_export" > <div class="vector-menu-heading"> Print/export </div> <div class="vector-menu-content"> <ul class="vector-menu-content-list"> <li id="coll-download-as-rl" class="mw-list-item"><a href="/w/index.php?title=Special:DownloadAsPdf&page=Hard_link&action=show-download-screen" title="Download this page as a PDF file"><span>Download as PDF</span></a></li><li id="t-print" class="mw-list-item"><a href="/w/index.php?title=Hard_link&printable=yes" title="Printable version of this page [p]" accesskey="p"><span>Printable version</span></a></li> </ul> </div> </div> <div id="p-wikibase-otherprojects" class="vector-menu mw-portlet mw-portlet-wikibase-otherprojects" > <div class="vector-menu-heading"> In other projects </div> <div class="vector-menu-content"> <ul class="vector-menu-content-list"> <li id="t-wikibase" class="wb-otherproject-link wb-otherproject-wikibase-dataitem mw-list-item"><a href="https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Special:EntityPage/Q599843" title="Structured data on this page hosted by Wikidata [g]" accesskey="g"><span>Wikidata item</span></a></li> </ul> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </nav> </div> </div> </div> <div class="vector-column-end"> <div class="vector-sticky-pinned-container"> <nav class="vector-page-tools-landmark" aria-label="Page tools"> <div id="vector-page-tools-pinned-container" class="vector-pinned-container"> </div> </nav> <nav class="vector-appearance-landmark" aria-label="Appearance"> <div id="vector-appearance-pinned-container" class="vector-pinned-container"> <div id="vector-appearance" class="vector-appearance vector-pinnable-element"> <div class="vector-pinnable-header vector-appearance-pinnable-header vector-pinnable-header-pinned" data-feature-name="appearance-pinned" data-pinnable-element-id="vector-appearance" data-pinned-container-id="vector-appearance-pinned-container" data-unpinned-container-id="vector-appearance-unpinned-container" > <div class="vector-pinnable-header-label">Appearance</div> <button class="vector-pinnable-header-toggle-button vector-pinnable-header-pin-button" data-event-name="pinnable-header.vector-appearance.pin">move to sidebar</button> <button class="vector-pinnable-header-toggle-button vector-pinnable-header-unpin-button" data-event-name="pinnable-header.vector-appearance.unpin">hide</button> </div> </div> </div> </nav> </div> </div> <div id="bodyContent" class="vector-body" aria-labelledby="firstHeading" data-mw-ve-target-container> <div class="vector-body-before-content"> <div class="mw-indicators"> </div> <div id="siteSub" class="noprint">From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia</div> </div> <div id="contentSub"><div id="mw-content-subtitle"></div></div> <div id="mw-content-text" class="mw-body-content"><div class="mw-content-ltr mw-parser-output" lang="en" dir="ltr"><div class="shortdescription nomobile noexcerpt noprint searchaux" style="display:none">Directory entry (in a directory-based file system) that associates a name with a file</div> <style data-mw-deduplicate="TemplateStyles:r1236090951">.mw-parser-output .hatnote{font-style:italic}.mw-parser-output div.hatnote{padding-left:1.6em;margin-bottom:0.5em}.mw-parser-output .hatnote i{font-style:normal}.mw-parser-output .hatnote+link+.hatnote{margin-top:-0.5em}@media print{body.ns-0 .mw-parser-output .hatnote{display:none!important}}</style><div role="note" class="hatnote navigation-not-searchable">For the hyperlinking term, see <a href="/wiki/Hardlink_(hyperlink)" class="mw-redirect" title="Hardlink (hyperlink)">Hardlink (hyperlink)</a>.</div> <p>In <a href="/wiki/Computing" title="Computing">computing</a>, a <b>hard link</b> is a <a href="/wiki/Directory_entry" class="mw-redirect" title="Directory entry">directory entry</a> (in a <a href="/wiki/Directory_(computing)" title="Directory (computing)">directory</a>-based <a href="/wiki/File_system" title="File system">file system</a>) that associates a name with a <a href="/wiki/Computer_file" title="Computer file">file</a>. Thus, each file must have at least one hard link. Creating additional hard links for a file makes the contents of that file accessible via additional <a href="/wiki/Path_(computing)" title="Path (computing)">paths</a> (i.e., via different names or in different directories).<sup id="cite_ref-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-1"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>1<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> This causes an <a href="/wiki/Aliasing_(computing)" title="Aliasing (computing)">alias effect</a>: a process can open the file by any one of its paths and change its content. By contrast, a <a href="/wiki/Soft_link" class="mw-redirect" title="Soft link">soft link</a> or <a href="/wiki/File_shortcut" class="mw-redirect" title="File shortcut">“shortcut”</a> to a file is not a direct link to the data itself, but rather a reference to a hard link or another soft link. </p><p>Every directory is itself a special file on many systems, containing a list of file names instead of other data. Hence, multiple hard links to directories are possible, which could create a circular directory structure, rather than a branching structure like a <a href="/wiki/Tree_structure" title="Tree structure">tree</a>. For that reason, some file systems forbid the creation of additional hard links to directories. </p><p><a href="/wiki/POSIX" title="POSIX">POSIX</a>-compliant <a href="/wiki/Operating_system" title="Operating system">operating systems</a>, such as <a href="/wiki/Linux" title="Linux">Linux</a>, <a href="/wiki/Android_(operating_system)" title="Android (operating system)">Android</a>, <a href="/wiki/MacOS" title="MacOS">macOS</a>, and the non POSIX compliant <a href="/wiki/Windows_NT_family" class="mw-redirect" title="Windows NT family">Windows NT family</a>,<sup id="cite_ref-2" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-2"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>2<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> support multiple hard links to the same file, depending on the file system. For instance, <a href="/wiki/NTFS" title="NTFS">NTFS</a> and <a href="/wiki/ReFS" title="ReFS">ReFS</a> support hard links,<sup id="cite_ref-3" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-3"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>3<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> while <a href="/wiki/File_Allocation_Table" title="File Allocation Table">FAT</a> does not. </p> <meta property="mw:PageProp/toc" /> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="Operation">Operation</h2><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Hard_link&action=edit&section=1" title="Edit section: Operation"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <figure class="mw-default-size mw-halign-right" typeof="mw:File/Thumb"><a href="/wiki/File:Hard_Link_Illustration.svg" class="mw-file-description"><img src="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/32/Hard_Link_Illustration.svg/250px-Hard_Link_Illustration.svg.png" decoding="async" width="220" height="119" class="mw-file-element" srcset="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/32/Hard_Link_Illustration.svg/330px-Hard_Link_Illustration.svg.png 1.5x, //upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/32/Hard_Link_Illustration.svg/440px-Hard_Link_Illustration.svg.png 2x" data-file-width="314" data-file-height="170" /></a><figcaption>An illustration of the concept of hard linking</figcaption></figure> <p>Let two hard links, named "LINK A.TXT" and "LINK B.TXT", point to the same physical data. A <a href="/wiki/Text_editor" title="Text editor">text editor</a> opens "LINK A.TXT", modifies it and saves it. When the editor (or any other app) opens "LINK B.TXT", it can see those changes made to "LINK A.TXT", since both file names point to the same data. So from a user's point of view this is one file with several filenames. Editing any filename modifies "all" files, however deleting "any" filename except the last one keeps the file around. </p><p>However, some editors, such as <a href="/wiki/GNU_Emacs" title="GNU Emacs">GNU Emacs</a>, break the hard link concept. When opening a file for editing, e.g., "LINK B.TXT", emacs renames "LINK B.TXT" to "LINK B.TXT~", loads "LINK B.TXT~" into the editor, and saves the modified contents to a newly created "LINK B.TXT". Now, "LINK A.TXT" and "LINK B.TXT" no longer shares the same data. (This behavior can be changed using the emacs variable <code>backup-by-copying</code>.) </p><p>Any number of hard links to the physical data may be created. To access the data, a user only needs to specify the name of any existing link; the operating system will resolve the location of the actual data. Even if the user deletes one of the hard links, the data is still accessible through any other link that remains. Once the user deletes all of the links, if no process has the file open, the operating system frees the disk space that the file once occupied. </p> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading3"><h3 id="Reference_counting">Reference counting</h3><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Hard_link&action=edit&section=2" title="Edit section: Reference counting"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <figure class="mw-default-size" typeof="mw:File/Thumb"><a href="/wiki/File:Simplified_illustration_of_hard_links_on_typical_UN*X_filesystem.png" class="mw-file-description"><img src="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b5/Simplified_illustration_of_hard_links_on_typical_UN%2AX_filesystem.png/250px-Simplified_illustration_of_hard_links_on_typical_UN%2AX_filesystem.png" decoding="async" width="220" height="155" class="mw-file-element" srcset="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b5/Simplified_illustration_of_hard_links_on_typical_UN%2AX_filesystem.png/330px-Simplified_illustration_of_hard_links_on_typical_UN%2AX_filesystem.png 1.5x, //upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b5/Simplified_illustration_of_hard_links_on_typical_UN%2AX_filesystem.png/500px-Simplified_illustration_of_hard_links_on_typical_UN%2AX_filesystem.png 2x" data-file-width="816" data-file-height="576" /></a><figcaption>Simplified illustration of hard links on typical Unix filesystem. Note that files "A" and "D" both point to same index entry in filesystem's <a href="/wiki/Inode" title="Inode">inode</a> table, making its reference count 2.</figcaption></figure> <p>Most <a href="/wiki/File_system" title="File system">file systems</a> that support hard links use <a href="/wiki/Reference_counting" title="Reference counting">reference counting</a>. The system stores an <a href="/wiki/Integer" title="Integer">integer</a> value with each logical <a href="/wiki/Data" title="Data">data</a> section that represents the total number of hard links that have been created to point to the data. When a new link is created, this value is increased by one. When a link is removed, the value is decreased by one. When the counter becomes zero, the operating system frees the logical data section. (The OS may not to do so immediately, e.g., when there are outstanding file handles open, for performance reasons, or to enable the <a href="/wiki/Undelete" class="mw-redirect" title="Undelete">undelete</a> command.) </p><p>This is a simple method for the file system to track the use of a given area of storage, as zero values indicate free space and nonzero values indicate used space. The maintenance of this value guarantees that there will be no dangling hard links pointing nowhere. The data section and the associated <a href="/wiki/Inode" title="Inode">inode</a> are preserved as long as a single hard link (directory reference) points to it or any process keeps the associated file open. </p><p>On <a href="/wiki/POSIX" title="POSIX">POSIX</a>-compliant operating systems, the reference count for a file or directory is returned by the <a href="/wiki/Stat_(Unix)" class="mw-redirect" title="Stat (Unix)">stat()</a> or fstat() system calls in the <code>st_nlink</code> field of <code>struct stat</code>. </p> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="Limitations">Limitations</h2><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Hard_link&action=edit&section=3" title="Edit section: Limitations"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <p>To prevent loops in the filesystem, and to keep the interpretation of the "<code class="mw-highlight mw-highlight-lang-text mw-content-ltr" style="" dir="ltr">..</code>" file (parent directory) consistent, operating systems do not generally allow hard links to directories. <a href="/wiki/UNIX_System_V" title="UNIX System V">UNIX System V</a> allowed them, but only the <a href="/wiki/Superuser" title="Superuser">superuser</a> had permission to make such links.<sup id="cite_ref-bach_4-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-bach-4"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>4<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> <a href="/wiki/Mac_OS_X_v10.5" class="mw-redirect" title="Mac OS X v10.5">Mac OS X v10.5 (Leopard)</a> and newer use hard links on directories for the <a href="/wiki/Time_Machine_(macOS)" title="Time Machine (macOS)">Time Machine</a> backup mechanism only.<sup id="cite_ref-PondHwTimeMachineWorks_5-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-PondHwTimeMachineWorks-5"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>5<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p><p>Hard links can be created to files only on the same volume, i.e., within the same file system. (Different volumes may have different file systems. There is no guarantee that the target volume's file system is compatible with hard linking.) </p><p>The maximum number of hard links to a single file is limited by the size of the reference counter. On Unix-like systems the counter is 4,294,967,295 (on 32-bit machines) or 18,446,744,073,709,551,615 (on 64-bit machines). In some file systems, the number of hard links is limited more strictly by their on-disk format. For example, as of <a href="/wiki/Linux" title="Linux">Linux</a> 3.11, the <a href="/wiki/Ext4" title="Ext4">ext4</a> file system limits the number of hard links on a file to 65,000.<sup id="cite_ref-6" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-6"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>6<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> <a href="/wiki/Windows" class="mw-redirect" title="Windows">Windows</a> limits enforces a limit of 1024 hard links to a file on <a href="/wiki/NTFS" title="NTFS">NTFS</a> volumes.<sup id="cite_ref-7" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-7"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>7<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p><p>On <a href="/wiki/Linux_Weekly_News" class="mw-redirect" title="Linux Weekly News">Linux Weekly News</a>, Neil Brown criticized hard links as high-maintenance, since they complicate the design of programs that handle directory trees, including archivers and disk usage tools. These apps must take care to de-duplicate files that are linked multiple times in a <a href="/wiki/Hierarchy" title="Hierarchy">hierarchy</a>. Brown notes that <a href="/wiki/Plan_9_from_Bell_Labs" title="Plan 9 from Bell Labs">Plan 9 from Bell Labs</a>, the intended successor to Unix, does not include the concept of a hard link.<sup id="cite_ref-8" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-8"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>8<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="Platform_support">Platform support</h2><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Hard_link&action=edit&section=4" title="Edit section: Platform support"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <p><a href="/wiki/Windows_NT_3.1" title="Windows NT 3.1">Windows NT 3.1</a> and later support hard links on the <a href="/wiki/NTFS" title="NTFS">NTFS</a> file system.<sup id="cite_ref-9" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-9"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>9<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> Windows 2000 introduces a <code>CreateHardLink()</code> function to create hard links, but only for files, not directories.<sup id="cite_ref-10" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-10"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>10<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> The <code>DeleteFile()</code> function can remove them. </p><p>To create a hard link on Windows, end-users can use: </p> <ul><li>The <code>fsutil</code> utility (introduced in <a href="/wiki/Windows_2000" title="Windows 2000">Windows 2000</a>)<sup id="cite_ref-:0_11-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-:0-11"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>11<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup></li> <li>The <code>mklink</code> internal command of <a href="/wiki/Windows_Command_Prompt" class="mw-redirect" title="Windows Command Prompt">Windows Command Prompt</a> (introduced in <a href="/wiki/Windows_Vista" title="Windows Vista">Windows Vista</a> and <a href="/wiki/Windows_Server_2008" title="Windows Server 2008">Windows Server 2008</a>)<sup id="cite_ref-12" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-12"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>12<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup></li> <li>The <code>New-Item</code> cmdlet of <a href="/wiki/PowerShell" title="PowerShell">PowerShell</a><sup id="cite_ref-:1_13-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-:1-13"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>13<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup></li></ul> <p>To interrogate a file for its hard links, end-users can use: </p> <ul><li>The <code>fsutil</code> utility<sup id="cite_ref-:0_11-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-:0-11"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>11<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup></li> <li>The <code>Get-Item</code> and <code>Get-ChildItem</code> cmdlets of PowerShell. These cmdlets represent each file with an object; PowerShell adds a read-only LinkType property to each of them. This property contains the "<code>HardLink</code>" string if the associated file has multiple hard links.<sup id="cite_ref-:2_14-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-:2-14"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>14<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup></li></ul> <p>The <a href="/wiki/WinSxS" class="mw-redirect" title="WinSxS">Windows Component Store</a> uses hard links to keep track of different versions of components stored on the hard disk drive. </p><p>On <a href="/wiki/Unix-like" title="Unix-like">Unix-like</a> systems, the <code class="mw-highlight mw-highlight-lang-text mw-content-ltr" style="" dir="ltr">link()</code> <a href="/wiki/System_call" title="System call">system call</a> can create additional hard links to existing files. To create hard links, end-users can use: </p> <ul><li>The <a href="/wiki/Ln_(Unix)" title="Ln (Unix)">ln</a> utility</li> <li>The <a href="/wiki/Link_(Unix)" title="Link (Unix)">link</a> utility</li> <li>The <code>New-Item</code> cmdlet of PowerShell<sup id="cite_ref-:1_13-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-:1-13"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>13<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup></li></ul> <p>To interrogate a file for its hard links, end-users can use: </p> <ul><li>The <code><a href="/wiki/Stat_(Unix)" class="mw-redirect" title="Stat (Unix)">stat</a></code> command</li> <li>The <code><a href="/wiki/Ls" title="Ls">ls</a> -l</code> command</li> <li>The <code>Get-Item</code> and <code>Get-ChildItem</code> cmdlets of PowerShell (see above)<sup id="cite_ref-:2_14-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-:2-14"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>14<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup></li></ul> <p>Unix-like emulation or compatibility software running on Microsoft Windows, such as <a href="/wiki/Cygwin" title="Cygwin">Cygwin</a> and <a href="/wiki/Subsystem_for_UNIX-based_Applications" class="mw-redirect" title="Subsystem for UNIX-based Applications">Subsystem for UNIX-based Applications</a>, allow the use of POSIX interfaces. </p><p><a href="/wiki/OpenVMS" title="OpenVMS">OpenVMS</a> supports hard links on the <a href="/wiki/Files-11" title="Files-11">ODS-5</a> file system.<sup id="cite_ref-15" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-15"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>15<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> Unlike Unix, VMS can create hard links to directories. </p> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="See_also">See also</h2><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Hard_link&action=edit&section=5" title="Edit section: See also"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Symbolic_link" title="Symbolic link">Symbolic link</a>: Points to a hard link, not the file data itself; hence, it works across volumes and file systems.</li> <li><a href="/wiki/NTFS_links" title="NTFS links">NTFS links</a>: Details the four link types that the NTFS supports—hard links, symbolic links, junction points, and volume mount points</li> <li><a href="/wiki/Shortcut_(computing)" title="Shortcut (computing)">Shortcut</a>: A small file that points to another in a local or remote location <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Alias_(Mac_OS)" title="Alias (Mac OS)">Alias</a>: macOS implementation of a shortcut</li> <li><a href="/wiki/Shadow_(OS/2)" title="Shadow (OS/2)">Shadow</a>: OS/2 implementation of a shortcut</li></ul></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Freedup" title="Freedup">freedup</a> – The <code>freedup</code> command frees-up disk space by replacing duplicate data stores with automatically generated hard links</li></ul> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="References">References</h2><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Hard_link&action=edit&section=6" title="Edit section: References"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <style data-mw-deduplicate="TemplateStyles:r1239543626">.mw-parser-output .reflist{margin-bottom:0.5em;list-style-type:decimal}@media screen{.mw-parser-output .reflist{font-size:90%}}.mw-parser-output .reflist .references{font-size:100%;margin-bottom:0;list-style-type:inherit}.mw-parser-output .reflist-columns-2{column-width:30em}.mw-parser-output .reflist-columns-3{column-width:25em}.mw-parser-output .reflist-columns{margin-top:0.3em}.mw-parser-output .reflist-columns ol{margin-top:0}.mw-parser-output .reflist-columns li{page-break-inside:avoid;break-inside:avoid-column}.mw-parser-output .reflist-upper-alpha{list-style-type:upper-alpha}.mw-parser-output .reflist-upper-roman{list-style-type:upper-roman}.mw-parser-output .reflist-lower-alpha{list-style-type:lower-alpha}.mw-parser-output .reflist-lower-greek{list-style-type:lower-greek}.mw-parser-output .reflist-lower-roman{list-style-type:lower-roman}</style><div class="reflist"> <div class="mw-references-wrap mw-references-columns"><ol class="references"> <li id="cite_note-1"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-1">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><style data-mw-deduplicate="TemplateStyles:r1238218222">.mw-parser-output cite.citation{font-style:inherit;word-wrap:break-word}.mw-parser-output .citation q{quotes:"\"""\"""'""'"}.mw-parser-output .citation:target{background-color:rgba(0,127,255,0.133)}.mw-parser-output .id-lock-free.id-lock-free a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/65/Lock-green.svg")right 0.1em center/9px no-repeat}.mw-parser-output .id-lock-limited.id-lock-limited a,.mw-parser-output .id-lock-registration.id-lock-registration a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d6/Lock-gray-alt-2.svg")right 0.1em center/9px no-repeat}.mw-parser-output .id-lock-subscription.id-lock-subscription a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/aa/Lock-red-alt-2.svg")right 0.1em center/9px no-repeat}.mw-parser-output .cs1-ws-icon a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4c/Wikisource-logo.svg")right 0.1em center/12px no-repeat}body:not(.skin-timeless):not(.skin-minerva) .mw-parser-output .id-lock-free a,body:not(.skin-timeless):not(.skin-minerva) .mw-parser-output .id-lock-limited a,body:not(.skin-timeless):not(.skin-minerva) .mw-parser-output .id-lock-registration a,body:not(.skin-timeless):not(.skin-minerva) .mw-parser-output .id-lock-subscription a,body:not(.skin-timeless):not(.skin-minerva) .mw-parser-output .cs1-ws-icon a{background-size:contain;padding:0 1em 0 0}.mw-parser-output .cs1-code{color:inherit;background:inherit;border:none;padding:inherit}.mw-parser-output .cs1-hidden-error{display:none;color:var(--color-error,#d33)}.mw-parser-output .cs1-visible-error{color:var(--color-error,#d33)}.mw-parser-output .cs1-maint{display:none;color:#085;margin-left:0.3em}.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-left{padding-left:0.2em}.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-right{padding-right:0.2em}.mw-parser-output .citation .mw-selflink{font-weight:inherit}@media screen{.mw-parser-output .cs1-format{font-size:95%}html.skin-theme-clientpref-night .mw-parser-output .cs1-maint{color:#18911f}}@media screen and (prefers-color-scheme:dark){html.skin-theme-clientpref-os .mw-parser-output .cs1-maint{color:#18911f}}</style><cite id="CITEREFPitcher" class="citation web cs1">Pitcher, Lew. <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://linuxgazette.net/105/pitcher.html">"Q & A: The difference between hard and soft links"</a>.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=unknown&rft.btitle=Q+%26+A%3A+The+difference+between+hard+and+soft+links&rft.aulast=Pitcher&rft.aufirst=Lew&rft_id=http%3A%2F%2Flinuxgazette.net%2F105%2Fpitcher.html&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3AHard+link" class="Z3988"></span></span> </li> <li id="cite_note-2"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-2">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222" /><cite class="citation web cs1"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://schinagl.priv.at/nt/hardlinkshellext/hardlinkshellext.html">"Link Shell Extension"</a>.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=unknown&rft.btitle=Link+Shell+Extension&rft_id=http%3A%2F%2Fschinagl.priv.at%2Fnt%2Fhardlinkshellext%2Fhardlinkshellext.html&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3AHard+link" class="Z3988"></span></span> </li> <li id="cite_note-3"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-3">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222" /><cite class="citation web cs1"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/storage/refs/refs-overview#the-following-features-are-available-with-refs-and-ntfs">"Resilient File System (ReFS) overview"</a>. <i>Microsoft Learn</i>. 26 October 2022 – via <a href="/wiki/Microsoft_Docs" title="Microsoft Docs">Microsoft Docs</a>.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Ajournal&rft.genre=unknown&rft.jtitle=Microsoft+Learn&rft.atitle=Resilient+File+System+%28ReFS%29+overview&rft.date=2022-10-26&rft_id=https%3A%2F%2Flearn.microsoft.com%2Fen-us%2Fwindows-server%2Fstorage%2Frefs%2Frefs-overview%23the-following-features-are-available-with-refs-and-ntfs&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3AHard+link" class="Z3988"></span></span> </li> <li id="cite_note-bach-4"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-bach_4-0">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222" /><cite id="CITEREFBach1986" class="citation book cs1">Bach, Maurice J. (1986). <span class="id-lock-registration" title="Free registration required"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://archive.org/details/designofunixoper00bach/page/128"><i>The Design of the UNIX Operating System</i></a></span>. Prentice Hall. p. 128. <a href="/wiki/ISBN_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="ISBN (identifier)">ISBN</a> <a href="/wiki/Special:BookSources/9780132017992" title="Special:BookSources/9780132017992"><bdi>9780132017992</bdi></a>.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=book&rft.btitle=The+Design+of+the+UNIX+Operating+System&rft.pages=128&rft.pub=Prentice+Hall&rft.date=1986&rft.isbn=9780132017992&rft.aulast=Bach&rft.aufirst=Maurice+J.&rft_id=https%3A%2F%2Farchive.org%2Fdetails%2Fdesignofunixoper00bach%2Fpage%2F128&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3AHard+link" class="Z3988"></span></span> </li> <li id="cite_note-PondHwTimeMachineWorks-5"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-PondHwTimeMachineWorks_5-0">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222" /><cite id="CITEREFPond2013" class="citation web cs1">Pond, James (August 31, 2013). <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20190621092705/https://www.baligu.com/pondini/TM/Works.html">"How Time Machine Works its Magic"</a>. File System Event Store, Hard Links. Archived from <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://baligu.com/pondini/TM/Works.html">the original</a> on June 21, 2019<span class="reference-accessdate">. Retrieved <span class="nowrap">May 19,</span> 2019</span>.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=unknown&rft.btitle=How+Time+Machine+Works+its+Magic&rft.pages=File+System+Event+Store%2C+Hard+Links&rft.date=2013-08-31&rft.aulast=Pond&rft.aufirst=James&rft_id=http%3A%2F%2Fbaligu.com%2Fpondini%2FTM%2FWorks.html&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3AHard+link" class="Z3988"></span></span> </li> <li id="cite_note-6"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-6">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222" /><cite class="citation web cs1"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://git.kernel.org/cgit/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/tree/fs/ext4/ext4.h?id=6e4664525b1db28f8c4e1130957f70a94c19213e#n229">"Linux kernel source tree, fs/ext4/ext4.h, line 229"</a>.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=unknown&rft.btitle=Linux+kernel+source+tree%2C+fs%2Fext4%2Fext4.h%2C+line+229&rft_id=https%3A%2F%2Fgit.kernel.org%2Fcgit%2Flinux%2Fkernel%2Fgit%2Ftorvalds%2Flinux.git%2Ftree%2Ffs%2Fext4%2Fext4.h%3Fid%3D6e4664525b1db28f8c4e1130957f70a94c19213e%23n229&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3AHard+link" class="Z3988"></span></span> </li> <li id="cite_note-7"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-7">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222" /><cite class="citation web cs1"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/api/winbase/nf-winbase-createhardlinka">"CreateHardLinkA function (winbase.h)"</a>. <i>Windows App Development</i>. 13 October 2021 – via <a href="/wiki/Microsoft_Docs" title="Microsoft Docs">Microsoft Docs</a>.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Ajournal&rft.genre=unknown&rft.jtitle=Windows+App+Development&rft.atitle=CreateHardLinkA+function+%28winbase.h%29&rft.date=2021-10-13&rft_id=https%3A%2F%2Fdocs.microsoft.com%2Fen-us%2Fwindows%2Fwin32%2Fapi%2Fwinbase%2Fnf-winbase-createhardlinka&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3AHard+link" class="Z3988"></span></span> </li> <li id="cite_note-8"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-8">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222" /><cite id="CITEREFBrown2010" class="citation web cs1">Brown, Neil (23 November 2010). <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://lwn.net/Articles/416494/">"Ghosts of Unix past, part 4: High-maintenance designs"</a>. <i>Linux Weekly News</i><span class="reference-accessdate">. Retrieved <span class="nowrap">20 April</span> 2014</span>.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Ajournal&rft.genre=unknown&rft.jtitle=Linux+Weekly+News&rft.atitle=Ghosts+of+Unix+past%2C+part+4%3A+High-maintenance+designs&rft.date=2010-11-23&rft.aulast=Brown&rft.aufirst=Neil&rft_id=https%3A%2F%2Flwn.net%2FArticles%2F416494%2F&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3AHard+link" class="Z3988"></span></span> </li> <li id="cite_note-9"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-9">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222" /><cite class="citation web cs1"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/archive/blogs/joscon/how-hard-links-work">"How hard links work"</a>. <i>Microsoft Docs</i>. 6 January 2011.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Ajournal&rft.genre=unknown&rft.jtitle=Microsoft+Docs&rft.atitle=How+hard+links+work&rft.date=2011-01-06&rft_id=https%3A%2F%2Fdocs.microsoft.com%2Fen-us%2Farchive%2Fblogs%2Fjoscon%2Fhow-hard-links-work&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3AHard+link" class="Z3988"></span></span> </li> <li id="cite_note-10"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-10">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222" /><cite class="citation web cs1 cs1-prop-unfit"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110702043053/http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/Aa363860">"CreateHardLink Function"</a>. <i>Windows Development</i>. <a href="/wiki/Microsoft" title="Microsoft">Microsoft</a>. 10 March 2011. Archived from the original on 2 July 2011 – via <a href="/wiki/MSDN" class="mw-redirect" title="MSDN">MSDN</a>. <q>Establishes a hard link between an existing file and a new file. This function is only supported on the NTFS file system, and only for files, not directories.</q></cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Ajournal&rft.genre=unknown&rft.jtitle=Windows+Development&rft.atitle=CreateHardLink+Function&rft.date=2011-03-10&rft_id=http%3A%2F%2Fmsdn.microsoft.com%2Fen-us%2Flibrary%2FAa363860&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3AHard+link" class="Z3988"></span></span> </li> <li id="cite_note-:0-11"><span class="mw-cite-backlink">^ <a href="#cite_ref-:0_11-0"><sup><i><b>a</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-:0_11-1"><sup><i><b>b</b></i></sup></a></span> <span class="reference-text"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222" /><cite class="citation web cs1"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/previous-versions/windows/it-pro/windows-server-2008-r2-and-2008/cc788097(v=ws.10)">"Fsutil hardlink"</a>. <i>Windows App Development</i>. <a href="/wiki/Microsoft" title="Microsoft">Microsoft</a>. 18 April 2012 – via Microsoft Docs.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Ajournal&rft.genre=unknown&rft.jtitle=Windows+App+Development&rft.atitle=Fsutil+hardlink&rft.date=2012-04-18&rft_id=https%3A%2F%2Fdocs.microsoft.com%2Fen-us%2Fprevious-versions%2Fwindows%2Fit-pro%2Fwindows-server-2008-r2-and-2008%2Fcc788097%28v%3Dws.10%29&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3AHard+link" class="Z3988"></span></span> </li> <li id="cite_note-12"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-12">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222" /><cite class="citation web cs1"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/previous-versions/windows/it-pro/windows-server-2008-R2-and-2008/cc753194(v=ws.10)">"Mklink"</a>. <i>Microsoft Docs</i>. <a href="/wiki/Microsoft" title="Microsoft">Microsoft</a>. 18 April 2012.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Ajournal&rft.genre=unknown&rft.jtitle=Microsoft+Docs&rft.atitle=Mklink&rft.date=2012-04-18&rft_id=https%3A%2F%2Fdocs.microsoft.com%2Fen-us%2Fprevious-versions%2Fwindows%2Fit-pro%2Fwindows-server-2008-R2-and-2008%2Fcc753194%28v%3Dws.10%29&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3AHard+link" class="Z3988"></span></span> </li> <li id="cite_note-:1-13"><span class="mw-cite-backlink">^ <a href="#cite_ref-:1_13-0"><sup><i><b>a</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-:1_13-1"><sup><i><b>b</b></i></sup></a></span> <span class="reference-text"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222" /><cite class="citation web cs1"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/previous-versions/powershell/module/microsoft.powershell.management/new-item?view=powershell-3.0">"New-Item (PowerShell 3.0)"</a>. <i>Microsoft Docs</i>. <a href="/wiki/Microsoft" title="Microsoft">Microsoft</a>. 22 June 2020. <q>If your location is in a FileSystem drive, the following values are allowed: If your location is in a FileSystem drive, the following values are allowed: File[,] Directory[,] Junction[,] HardLink</q></cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Ajournal&rft.genre=unknown&rft.jtitle=Microsoft+Docs&rft.atitle=New-Item+%28PowerShell+3.0%29&rft.date=2020-06-22&rft_id=https%3A%2F%2Fdocs.microsoft.com%2Fen-us%2Fprevious-versions%2Fpowershell%2Fmodule%2Fmicrosoft.powershell.management%2Fnew-item%3Fview%3Dpowershell-3.0&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3AHard+link" class="Z3988"></span></span> </li> <li id="cite_note-:2-14"><span class="mw-cite-backlink">^ <a href="#cite_ref-:2_14-0"><sup><i><b>a</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-:2_14-1"><sup><i><b>b</b></i></sup></a></span> <span class="reference-text"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222" /><cite class="citation web cs1"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://github.com/PowerShell/PowerShell/blob/88ba3f61fa4f8388cb98533563d190d8fcb6c55b/src/System.Management.Automation/namespaces/FileSystemProvider.cs#L8139-L8234">"FileSystemProvider.cs"</a>. <i>PowerShell / PowerShell repo</i>. <a href="/wiki/Microsoft" title="Microsoft">Microsoft</a>. 20 November 2021. Lines 8139–8234 – via <a href="/wiki/GitHub" title="GitHub">GitHub</a>.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Ajournal&rft.genre=unknown&rft.jtitle=PowerShell+%2F+PowerShell+repo&rft.atitle=FileSystemProvider.cs&rft.pages=Lines+8139-8234&rft.date=2021-11-20&rft_id=https%3A%2F%2Fgithub.com%2FPowerShell%2FPowerShell%2Fblob%2F88ba3f61fa4f8388cb98533563d190d8fcb6c55b%2Fsrc%2FSystem.Management.Automation%2Fnamespaces%2FFileSystemProvider.cs%23L8139-L8234&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3AHard+link" class="Z3988"></span></span> </li> <li id="cite_note-15"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-15">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222" /><cite class="citation web cs1"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://vmssoftware.com/docs/VSI_SYS_MGMT_MANUAL_VOL_I.PDF">"OpenVMS System Manager's Manual, Vol. I"</a> <span class="cs1-format">(PDF)</span>. VSI. August 2019<span class="reference-accessdate">. Retrieved <span class="nowrap">2021-01-23</span></span>.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=unknown&rft.btitle=OpenVMS+System+Manager%27s+Manual%2C+Vol.+I&rft.pub=VSI&rft.date=2019-08&rft_id=https%3A%2F%2Fvmssoftware.com%2Fdocs%2FVSI_SYS_MGMT_MANUAL_VOL_I.PDF&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3AHard+link" class="Z3988"></span></span> </li> </ol></div></div> <div class="navbox-styles"><style data-mw-deduplicate="TemplateStyles:r1129693374">.mw-parser-output .hlist dl,.mw-parser-output .hlist ol,.mw-parser-output .hlist ul{margin:0;padding:0}.mw-parser-output .hlist dd,.mw-parser-output .hlist dt,.mw-parser-output .hlist li{margin:0;display:inline}.mw-parser-output .hlist.inline,.mw-parser-output .hlist.inline dl,.mw-parser-output .hlist.inline ol,.mw-parser-output .hlist.inline ul,.mw-parser-output .hlist dl dl,.mw-parser-output .hlist dl ol,.mw-parser-output .hlist dl ul,.mw-parser-output .hlist ol dl,.mw-parser-output .hlist ol ol,.mw-parser-output .hlist ol ul,.mw-parser-output .hlist ul dl,.mw-parser-output .hlist ul ol,.mw-parser-output .hlist ul ul{display:inline}.mw-parser-output .hlist .mw-empty-li{display:none}.mw-parser-output .hlist dt::after{content:": "}.mw-parser-output .hlist dd::after,.mw-parser-output .hlist li::after{content:" · ";font-weight:bold}.mw-parser-output .hlist dd:last-child::after,.mw-parser-output .hlist dt:last-child::after,.mw-parser-output .hlist li:last-child::after{content:none}.mw-parser-output .hlist dd dd:first-child::before,.mw-parser-output .hlist dd dt:first-child::before,.mw-parser-output .hlist dd li:first-child::before,.mw-parser-output .hlist dt dd:first-child::before,.mw-parser-output .hlist dt dt:first-child::before,.mw-parser-output .hlist dt li:first-child::before,.mw-parser-output .hlist li dd:first-child::before,.mw-parser-output .hlist li dt:first-child::before,.mw-parser-output .hlist li li:first-child::before{content:" (";font-weight:normal}.mw-parser-output .hlist dd dd:last-child::after,.mw-parser-output .hlist dd dt:last-child::after,.mw-parser-output .hlist dd li:last-child::after,.mw-parser-output .hlist dt dd:last-child::after,.mw-parser-output .hlist dt dt:last-child::after,.mw-parser-output .hlist dt li:last-child::after,.mw-parser-output .hlist li dd:last-child::after,.mw-parser-output .hlist li dt:last-child::after,.mw-parser-output .hlist li li:last-child::after{content:")";font-weight:normal}.mw-parser-output .hlist ol{counter-reset:listitem}.mw-parser-output .hlist ol>li{counter-increment:listitem}.mw-parser-output .hlist ol>li::before{content:" "counter(listitem)"\a0 "}.mw-parser-output .hlist dd ol>li:first-child::before,.mw-parser-output .hlist dt ol>li:first-child::before,.mw-parser-output .hlist li ol>li:first-child::before{content:" ("counter(listitem)"\a0 "}</style><style data-mw-deduplicate="TemplateStyles:r1236075235">.mw-parser-output .navbox{box-sizing:border-box;border:1px solid #a2a9b1;width:100%;clear:both;font-size:88%;text-align:center;padding:1px;margin:1em auto 0}.mw-parser-output .navbox .navbox{margin-top:0}.mw-parser-output .navbox+.navbox,.mw-parser-output .navbox+.navbox-styles+.navbox{margin-top:-1px}.mw-parser-output .navbox-inner,.mw-parser-output .navbox-subgroup{width:100%}.mw-parser-output .navbox-group,.mw-parser-output .navbox-title,.mw-parser-output .navbox-abovebelow{padding:0.25em 1em;line-height:1.5em;text-align:center}.mw-parser-output .navbox-group{white-space:nowrap;text-align:right}.mw-parser-output .navbox,.mw-parser-output .navbox-subgroup{background-color:#fdfdfd}.mw-parser-output .navbox-list{line-height:1.5em;border-color:#fdfdfd}.mw-parser-output .navbox-list-with-group{text-align:left;border-left-width:2px;border-left-style:solid}.mw-parser-output tr+tr>.navbox-abovebelow,.mw-parser-output tr+tr>.navbox-group,.mw-parser-output tr+tr>.navbox-image,.mw-parser-output tr+tr>.navbox-list{border-top:2px solid #fdfdfd}.mw-parser-output .navbox-title{background-color:#ccf}.mw-parser-output .navbox-abovebelow,.mw-parser-output .navbox-group,.mw-parser-output .navbox-subgroup .navbox-title{background-color:#ddf}.mw-parser-output .navbox-subgroup .navbox-group,.mw-parser-output .navbox-subgroup .navbox-abovebelow{background-color:#e6e6ff}.mw-parser-output .navbox-even{background-color:#f7f7f7}.mw-parser-output .navbox-odd{background-color:transparent}.mw-parser-output .navbox .hlist td dl,.mw-parser-output .navbox .hlist td ol,.mw-parser-output .navbox .hlist td ul,.mw-parser-output .navbox td.hlist dl,.mw-parser-output .navbox td.hlist ol,.mw-parser-output .navbox td.hlist ul{padding:0.125em 0}.mw-parser-output .navbox .navbar{display:block;font-size:100%}.mw-parser-output .navbox-title .navbar{float:left;text-align:left;margin-right:0.5em}body.skin--responsive .mw-parser-output .navbox-image img{max-width:none!important}@media print{body.ns-0 .mw-parser-output .navbox{display:none!important}}</style></div><div role="navigation" class="navbox" aria-labelledby="File_systems283" style="padding:3px"><table class="nowraplinks hlist mw-collapsible autocollapse navbox-inner" style="border-spacing:0;background:transparent;color:inherit"><tbody><tr><th scope="col" class="navbox-title" colspan="2"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1129693374" /><style data-mw-deduplicate="TemplateStyles:r1239400231">.mw-parser-output .navbar{display:inline;font-size:88%;font-weight:normal}.mw-parser-output .navbar-collapse{float:left;text-align:left}.mw-parser-output .navbar-boxtext{word-spacing:0}.mw-parser-output .navbar ul{display:inline-block;white-space:nowrap;line-height:inherit}.mw-parser-output .navbar-brackets::before{margin-right:-0.125em;content:"[ "}.mw-parser-output .navbar-brackets::after{margin-left:-0.125em;content:" ]"}.mw-parser-output .navbar li{word-spacing:-0.125em}.mw-parser-output .navbar a>span,.mw-parser-output .navbar a>abbr{text-decoration:inherit}.mw-parser-output .navbar-mini abbr{font-variant:small-caps;border-bottom:none;text-decoration:none;cursor:inherit}.mw-parser-output .navbar-ct-full{font-size:114%;margin:0 7em}.mw-parser-output .navbar-ct-mini{font-size:114%;margin:0 4em}html.skin-theme-clientpref-night .mw-parser-output .navbar li a abbr{color:var(--color-base)!important}@media(prefers-color-scheme:dark){html.skin-theme-clientpref-os .mw-parser-output .navbar li a abbr{color:var(--color-base)!important}}@media print{.mw-parser-output .navbar{display:none!important}}</style><div class="navbar plainlinks hlist navbar-mini"><ul><li class="nv-view"><a href="/wiki/Template:File_systems" title="Template:File systems"><abbr title="View this template">v</abbr></a></li><li class="nv-talk"><a href="/wiki/Template_talk:File_systems" title="Template talk:File systems"><abbr title="Discuss this template">t</abbr></a></li><li class="nv-edit"><a href="/wiki/Special:EditPage/Template:File_systems" title="Special:EditPage/Template:File systems"><abbr title="Edit this template">e</abbr></a></li></ul></div><div id="File_systems283" style="font-size:114%;margin:0 4em"><a href="/wiki/File_system" title="File system">File systems</a></div></th></tr><tr><td class="navbox-abovebelow" colspan="2"><div> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Comparison_of_file_systems" title="Comparison of file systems">Comparison of file systems</a> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Comparison_of_distributed_file_systems" title="Comparison of distributed file systems">distributed</a></li></ul></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Unix_filesystem" title="Unix filesystem">Unix filesystem</a></li></ul> </div></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="navbox-group" style="width:1%">Disk and<br />non-rotating</th><td class="navbox-list-with-group navbox-list navbox-odd" style="width:100%;padding:0"><div style="padding:0 0.25em"></div><table class="nowraplinks navbox-subgroup" style="border-spacing:0"><tbody><tr><td colspan="2" class="navbox-list navbox-odd" style="width:100%;padding:0"><div style="padding:0 0.25em"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Advanced_Disc_Filing_System" title="Advanced Disc Filing System">ADFS</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/AdvFS" title="AdvFS">AdvFS</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Amiga_Fast_File_System" title="Amiga Fast File System">Amiga FFS</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Amiga_Old_File_System" title="Amiga Old File System">Amiga OFS</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Apple_File_System" title="Apple File System">APFS</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/AtheOS_File_System" class="mw-redirect" title="AtheOS File System">AthFS</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Bcachefs" title="Bcachefs">bcachefs</a></li> <li>BFS <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Be_File_System" title="Be File System">Be File System</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Boot_File_System" title="Boot File System">Boot File System</a></li> <li>Byte File System (<a href="/wiki/Z/VM" title="Z/VM">z/VM</a>)</li></ul></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Btrfs" title="Btrfs">Btrfs</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/StorNext_File_System" title="StorNext File System">CVFS</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/CXFS" title="CXFS">CXFS</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Disc_Filing_System" title="Disc Filing System">DFS</a></li> <li>EFS <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Encrypting_File_System" title="Encrypting File System">Encrypting File System</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Extent_File_System" title="Extent File System">Extent File System</a></li></ul></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Episode_filesystem" title="Episode filesystem">Episode</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Extended_file_system" title="Extended file system">ext</a> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Ext2" title="Ext2">ext2</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Ext3" title="Ext3">ext3</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Ext3cow" title="Ext3cow">ext3cow</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Ext4" title="Ext4">ext4</a></li></ul></li> <li><a href="/wiki/File_Allocation_Table" title="File Allocation Table">FAT</a> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/ExFAT" title="ExFAT">exFAT</a></li></ul></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Files-11" title="Files-11">Files-11</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Fossil_(file_system)" title="Fossil (file system)">Fossil</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/GPFS" title="GPFS">GPFS</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/HAMMER_(file_system)" title="HAMMER (file system)">HAMMER</a> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/HAMMER2" title="HAMMER2">HAMMER2</a></li></ul></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Hierarchical_File_System_(Apple)" title="Hierarchical File System (Apple)">HFS</a> (<a href="/wiki/Classic_Mac_OS" title="Classic Mac OS">Classic Mac OS</a>)</li> <li><a href="/wiki/Hierarchical_File_System_(IBM_MVS)" title="Hierarchical File System (IBM MVS)">HFS</a> (<a href="/wiki/MVS" title="MVS">MVS</a>)</li> <li><a href="/wiki/HFS_Plus" title="HFS Plus">HFS+</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/High_Performance_File_System" title="High Performance File System">HPFS</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/High_Throughput_File_System" title="High Throughput File System">HTFS</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/JFS_(file_system)" title="JFS (file system)">JFS</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Log-structured_File_System_(BSD)" title="Log-structured File System (BSD)">LFS</a></li> <li>MFS <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Macintosh_File_System" title="Macintosh File System">Macintosh File System</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/TiVo_Media_File_System" title="TiVo Media File System">TiVo Media File System</a></li></ul></li> <li><a href="/wiki/MINIX_file_system" title="MINIX file system">MINIX</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/NetWare_File_System" title="NetWare File System">NetWare File System</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Next3" title="Next3">Next3</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/NILFS" title="NILFS">NILFS</a> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/NILFS" title="NILFS">NILFS2</a></li></ul></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Novell_Storage_Services" title="Novell Storage Services">NSS</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/NTFS" title="NTFS">NTFS</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/OneFS_distributed_file_system" title="OneFS distributed file system">OneFS</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/OpenZFS" title="OpenZFS">OpenZFS</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Professional_File_System" title="Professional File System">PFS</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/QFS" title="QFS">QFS</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/QNX4FS" title="QNX4FS">QNX4FS</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/ReFS" title="ReFS">ReFS</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/ReiserFS" title="ReiserFS">ReiserFS</a> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Reiser4" title="Reiser4">Reiser4</a></li></ul></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Datalight#Reliance_family" title="Datalight">Reliance</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Datalight#Reliance_Nitro" title="Datalight">Reliance Nitro</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Remote_File_Sharing" title="Remote File Sharing">RFS</a></li> <li>SFS <ul><li>Shared File System (<a href="/wiki/VM_(operating_system)" title="VM (operating system)">VM</a>)</li> <li><a href="/wiki/Smart_File_System" title="Smart File System">Smart File System</a></li></ul></li> <li><a href="/wiki/StorNext_File_System" title="StorNext File System">SNFS</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Soup_(Apple)" title="Soup (Apple)">Soup (Apple)</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Tux3" title="Tux3">Tux3</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/UBIFS" title="UBIFS">UBIFS</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Unix_File_System" title="Unix File System">UFS/UFS2</a> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Soft_updates" title="Soft updates">soft updates</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Write_Ahead_Physical_Block_Logging" title="Write Ahead Physical Block Logging">WAPBL</a></li></ul></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Veritas_File_System" title="Veritas File System">VxFS</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Write_Anywhere_File_Layout" title="Write Anywhere File Layout">WAFL</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Xiafs" title="Xiafs">Xiafs</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/XFS" title="XFS">XFS</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Xsan" title="Xsan">Xsan</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/ZFS_(z/OS_file_system)" title="ZFS (z/OS file system)">zFS</a> (<a href="/wiki/Z/OS" title="Z/OS">z/OS</a>)</li> <li><a href="/wiki/ZFS" title="ZFS">ZFS</a> (<a href="/wiki/Sun_Microsystems" title="Sun Microsystems">Sun</a>)</li></ul> </div></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="navbox-group" style="width:1%"><a href="/wiki/Optical_disc" title="Optical disc">Optical disc</a></th><td class="navbox-list-with-group navbox-list navbox-even" style="width:100%;padding:0"><div style="padding:0 0.25em"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/High_Sierra_Format" class="mw-redirect" title="High Sierra Format">HSF</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/ISO_9660" title="ISO 9660">ISO 9660</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/ISO_13490" title="ISO 13490">ISO 13490</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Universal_Disk_Format" title="Universal Disk Format">UDF</a></li></ul> </div></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="navbox-group" style="width:1%"><a href="/wiki/Flash_memory" title="Flash memory">Flash memory</a> and <a href="/wiki/Solid-state_drive" title="Solid-state drive">SSD</a></th><td class="navbox-list-with-group navbox-list navbox-odd" style="width:100%;padding:0"><div style="padding:0 0.25em"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Apple_File_System" title="Apple File System">APFS</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/File_Allocation_Table" title="File Allocation Table">FAT</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/ExFAT" title="ExFAT">exFAT</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Transaction-Safe_FAT_File_System" title="Transaction-Safe FAT File System">TFAT</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/EROFS" title="EROFS">EROFS</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/F2FS" title="F2FS">F2FS</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/JFS_(file_system)" title="JFS (file system)">JFS</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Non-Volatile_File_System" title="Non-Volatile File System">NVFS</a></li></ul> </div><table class="nowraplinks navbox-subgroup" style="border-spacing:0"><tbody><tr><th id="host-side_wear_leveling27" scope="row" class="navbox-group" style="width:1%">host-side <a href="/wiki/Wear_leveling" title="Wear leveling">wear leveling</a></th><td class="navbox-list-with-group navbox-list navbox-even" style="width:100%;padding:0"><div style="padding:0 0.25em"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/CHFS" title="CHFS">CHFS</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/JFFS" title="JFFS">JFFS</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/JFFS2" title="JFFS2">JFFS2</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/LogFS" title="LogFS">LogFS</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/NILFS" title="NILFS">NILFS</a> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/NILFS" title="NILFS">NILFS2</a></li></ul></li> <li><a href="/wiki/YAFFS" title="YAFFS">YAFFS</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/UBIFS" title="UBIFS">UBIFS</a></li></ul> </div></td></tr></tbody></table><div> </div></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="navbox-group" style="width:1%"><a href="/wiki/Clustered_file_system#Distributed_file_systems" title="Clustered file system">Distributed parallel</a></th><td class="navbox-list-with-group navbox-list navbox-odd" style="width:100%;padding:0"><div style="padding:0 0.25em"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/BeeGFS" title="BeeGFS">BeeGFS</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Ceph_(software)" title="Ceph (software)">Ceph</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/CXFS" title="CXFS">CXFS</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/GFS2" title="GFS2">GFS2</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Google_File_System" title="Google File System">Google File System</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/OCFS2" title="OCFS2">OCFS2</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/OrangeFS" title="OrangeFS">OrangeFS</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Parallel_Virtual_File_System" title="Parallel Virtual File System">PVFS</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Quantcast_File_System" title="Quantcast File System">QFS</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Xsan" title="Xsan">Xsan</a></li> <li><i><a href="/wiki/List_of_file_systems#Distributed_parallel_file_systems" title="List of file systems">more...</a></i></li></ul> </div></td></tr></tbody></table><div></div></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="navbox-group" style="width:1%"><a href="/wiki/Network-attached_storage" title="Network-attached storage">NAS</a></th><td class="navbox-list-with-group navbox-list navbox-even" style="width:100%;padding:0"><div style="padding:0 0.25em"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/9P_(protocol)" title="9P (protocol)">9P</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Andrew_File_System" title="Andrew File System">AFS</a> (<a href="/wiki/OpenAFS" title="OpenAFS">OpenAFS</a>)</li> <li><a href="/wiki/Apple_Filing_Protocol" title="Apple Filing Protocol">AFP</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Coda_(file_system)" title="Coda (file system)">Coda</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Distributed_File_System_(Microsoft)" title="Distributed File System (Microsoft)">DFS</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Google_File_System" title="Google File System">Google File System</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/GPFS" title="GPFS">GPFS</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Lustre_(file_system)" title="Lustre (file system)">Lustre</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/NetWare_Core_Protocol" title="NetWare Core Protocol">NCP</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Network_File_System" title="Network File System">NFS</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Elliptics" title="Elliptics">POHMELFS</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Apache_Hadoop" title="Apache Hadoop">Hadoop</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Server_Message_Block" title="Server Message Block">SMB (CIFS)</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/SSHFS" title="SSHFS">SSHFS</a></li> <li><i><a href="/wiki/List_of_file_systems#Distributed_file_systems" title="List of file systems">more...</a></i></li></ul> </div></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="navbox-group" style="width:1%">Specialized</th><td class="navbox-list-with-group navbox-list navbox-odd" style="width:100%;padding:0"><div style="padding:0 0.25em"></div><table class="nowraplinks navbox-subgroup" style="border-spacing:0"><tbody><tr><td colspan="2" class="navbox-list navbox-odd" style="width:100%;padding:0"><div style="padding:0 0.25em"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Aufs" title="Aufs">Aufs</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/AXFS" title="AXFS">AXFS</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Boot_File_System" title="Boot File System">Boot File System</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Compact_Disc_File_System" title="Compact Disc File System">Compact Disc File System</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Cramfs" title="Cramfs">cramfs</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Davfs2" title="Davfs2">Davfs2</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/EROFS" title="EROFS">EROFS</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/FTPFS" title="FTPFS">FTPFS</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Filesystem_in_Userspace" title="Filesystem in Userspace">FUSE</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Lnfs" title="Lnfs">Lnfs</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Linear_Tape_File_System" title="Linear Tape File System">LTFS</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/NOVA_(filesystem)" title="NOVA (filesystem)">NOVA</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Rational_MultiVersion_File_System" class="mw-redirect" title="Rational MultiVersion File System">MVFS</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/SquashFS" title="SquashFS">SquashFS</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/FAT_filesystem_and_Linux" title="FAT filesystem and Linux">UMSDOS</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/OverlayFS" title="OverlayFS">OverlayFS</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/UnionFS" title="UnionFS">UnionFS</a></li></ul> </div></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="navbox-group" style="width:1%">Pseudo</th><td class="navbox-list-with-group navbox-list navbox-even" style="width:100%;padding:0"><div style="padding:0 0.25em"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Configfs" title="Configfs">configfs</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Device_file" title="Device file">devfs</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Debugfs" title="Debugfs">debugfs</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Kernfs_(BSD)" title="Kernfs (BSD)">kernfs</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Procfs" title="Procfs">procfs</a></li> <li>specfs</li> <li><a href="/wiki/Sysfs" title="Sysfs">sysfs</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Tmpfs" title="Tmpfs">tmpfs</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/WinFS" title="WinFS">WinFS</a></li></ul> </div></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="navbox-group" style="width:1%"><a href="/wiki/Filesystem-level_encryption" title="Filesystem-level encryption">Encrypted</a></th><td class="navbox-list-with-group navbox-list navbox-odd" style="width:100%;padding:0"><div style="padding:0 0.25em"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/ECryptfs" title="ECryptfs">eCryptfs</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/EncFS" title="EncFS">EncFS</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Encrypting_File_System" title="Encrypting File System">EFS</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Rubberhose_(file_system)" class="mw-redirect" title="Rubberhose (file system)">Rubberhose</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/SSHFS" title="SSHFS">SSHFS</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Oracle_ZFS" title="Oracle ZFS">ZFS</a></li></ul> </div></td></tr></tbody></table><div></div></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="navbox-group" style="width:1%">Types</th><td class="navbox-list-with-group navbox-list navbox-even" style="width:100%;padding:0"><div style="padding:0 0.25em"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Clustered_file_system" title="Clustered file system">Clustered</a> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Global_file_system" title="Global file system">Global</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Grid_file_system" title="Grid file system">Grid</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Self-certifying_File_System" title="Self-certifying File System">Self-certifying</a></li></ul></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Flash_file_system" title="Flash file system">Flash</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Journaling_file_system" title="Journaling file system">Journaling</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Log-structured_file_system" title="Log-structured file system">Log-structured</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Object_storage" title="Object storage">Object</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Record-oriented_filesystem" title="Record-oriented filesystem">Record-oriented</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Semantic_file_system" title="Semantic file system">Semantic</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Steganographic_file_system" title="Steganographic file system">Steganographic</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Synthetic_file_system" title="Synthetic file system">Synthetic</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Versioning_file_system" title="Versioning file system">Versioning</a></li></ul> </div></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="navbox-group" style="width:1%">Features</th><td class="navbox-list-with-group navbox-list navbox-odd" style="width:100%;padding:0"><div style="padding:0 0.25em"></div><table class="nowraplinks navbox-subgroup" style="border-spacing:0"><tbody><tr><td colspan="2" class="navbox-list navbox-odd" style="width:100%;padding:0"><div style="padding:0 0.25em"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Case_preservation" title="Case preservation">Case preservation</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Copy-on-write" title="Copy-on-write">Copy-on-write</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Data_deduplication" title="Data deduplication">Data deduplication</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Data_scrubbing" title="Data scrubbing">Data scrubbing</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Execute_in_place" title="Execute in place">Execute in place</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Extent_(file_systems)" title="Extent (file systems)">Extent</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/File_attribute" title="File attribute">File attribute</a> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Extended_file_attributes" title="Extended file attributes">Extended file attributes</a></li></ul></li> <li><a href="/wiki/File_change_log" title="File change log">File change log</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Fork_(file_system)" title="Fork (file system)">Fork</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Inode" title="Inode">Inode</a></li> <li>Links <ul><li><a class="mw-selflink selflink">Hard</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Symbolic_link" title="Symbolic link">Symbolic</a></li></ul></li></ul> </div></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="navbox-group" style="width:1%"><a href="/wiki/Computer_access_control" title="Computer access control">Access control</a></th><td class="navbox-list-with-group navbox-list navbox-even" style="width:100%;padding:0"><div style="padding:0 0.25em"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Access-control_list" title="Access-control list">Access-control list</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Filesystem-level_encryption" title="Filesystem-level encryption">Filesystem-level encryption</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/File-system_permissions" title="File-system permissions">Permissions</a> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Chmod" title="Chmod">Modes</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Sticky_bit" title="Sticky bit">Sticky bit</a></li></ul></li></ul> </div></td></tr></tbody></table><div></div></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="navbox-group" style="width:1%"><a href="/wiki/Interface_(computing)" title="Interface (computing)">Interfaces</a></th><td class="navbox-list-with-group navbox-list navbox-odd" style="width:100%;padding:0"><div style="padding:0 0.25em"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/File_manager" title="File manager">File manager</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/File_system_API" title="File system API">File system API</a> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Installable_File_System" title="Installable File System">Installable File System</a></li></ul></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Virtual_file_system" title="Virtual file system">Virtual file system</a></li></ul> </div></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="navbox-group" style="width:1%"><a href="/wiki/List_of_file_systems" title="List of file systems">Lists</a></th><td class="navbox-list-with-group navbox-list navbox-even" style="width:100%;padding:0"><div style="padding:0 0.25em"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/List_of_cryptographic_file_systems" title="List of cryptographic file systems">Cryptographic</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/List_of_default_file_systems" title="List of default file systems">Default</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/List_of_log-structured_file_systems" title="List of log-structured file systems">Log-structured</a></li></ul> </div></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="navbox-group" style="width:1%">Layouts</th><td class="navbox-list-with-group navbox-list navbox-odd" style="width:100%;padding:0"><div style="padding:0 0.25em"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Master_Boot_Record" class="mw-redirect" title="Master Boot Record">Master Boot Record</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/GUID_Partition_Table" title="GUID Partition Table">GUID Partition Table</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Apple_Partition_Map" title="Apple Partition Map">Apple Partition Map</a></li></ul> </div></td></tr></tbody></table></div> <div class="navbox-styles"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1129693374" /><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1236075235" /></div><div role="navigation" class="navbox" aria-labelledby="Computer_files91" style="padding:3px"><table class="nowraplinks hlist mw-collapsible autocollapse navbox-inner" style="border-spacing:0;background:transparent;color:inherit"><tbody><tr><th scope="col" class="navbox-title" colspan="2"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1129693374" /><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1239400231" /><div class="navbar plainlinks hlist navbar-mini"><ul><li class="nv-view"><a href="/wiki/Template:Computer_files" title="Template:Computer files"><abbr title="View this template">v</abbr></a></li><li class="nv-talk"><a href="/wiki/Template_talk:Computer_files" title="Template talk:Computer files"><abbr title="Discuss this template">t</abbr></a></li><li class="nv-edit"><a href="/wiki/Special:EditPage/Template:Computer_files" title="Special:EditPage/Template:Computer files"><abbr title="Edit this template">e</abbr></a></li></ul></div><div id="Computer_files91" style="font-size:114%;margin:0 4em"><a href="/wiki/Computer_file" title="Computer file">Computer files</a></div></th></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="navbox-group" style="width:1%">Types</th><td class="navbox-list-with-group navbox-list navbox-odd" style="width:100%;padding:0"><div style="padding:0 0.25em"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Binary_file" title="Binary file">Binary file</a> / <a href="/wiki/Text_file" title="Text file">text file</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Data_file" title="Data file">Data file</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/File_format" title="File format">File format</a> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/List_of_file_formats" title="List of file formats">List of file formats</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/List_of_file_signatures" title="List of file signatures">File signatures</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Magic_number_(programming)" title="Magic number (programming)">Magic number</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Open_file_format" title="Open file format">Open file formats</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Proprietary_file_format" title="Proprietary file format">Proprietary file formats</a></li></ul></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Metafile" class="mw-redirect" title="Metafile">Metafile</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Sidecar_file" title="Sidecar file">Sidecar file</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Sparse_file" title="Sparse file">Sparse file</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Swap_file" class="mw-redirect" title="Swap file">Swap file</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/System_file" title="System file">System file</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Temporary_file" title="Temporary file">Temporary file</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Zero-byte_file" title="Zero-byte file">Zero-byte file</a></li></ul> </div></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="navbox-group" style="width:1%">Properties</th><td class="navbox-list-with-group navbox-list navbox-even" style="width:100%;padding:0"><div style="padding:0 0.25em"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Filename" title="Filename">Filename</a> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/8.3_filename" title="8.3 filename">8.3 filename</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Long_filename" title="Long filename">Long filename</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Filename_mangling" title="Filename mangling">Filename mangling</a></li></ul></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Filename_extension" title="Filename extension">Filename extension</a> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/List_of_filename_extensions" title="List of filename extensions">List of filename extensions</a></li></ul></li> <li><a href="/wiki/File_attribute" title="File attribute">File attribute</a> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Extended_file_attributes" title="Extended file attributes">Extended file attributes</a></li></ul></li> <li><a href="/wiki/File_size" title="File size">File size</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Hidden_file_and_hidden_directory" title="Hidden file and hidden directory">Hidden file / Hidden directory</a></li></ul> </div></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="navbox-group" style="width:1%">Organisation</th><td class="navbox-list-with-group navbox-list navbox-odd" style="width:100%;padding:0"><div style="padding:0 0.25em"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Directory_(computing)" title="Directory (computing)">Directory/folder</a> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/NTFS_links" title="NTFS links">NTFS links</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Temporary_folder" title="Temporary folder">Temporary folder</a></li></ul></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Directory_structure" title="Directory structure">Directory structure</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/File_system" title="File system">File system</a> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Filesystem_Hierarchy_Standard" title="Filesystem Hierarchy Standard">Filesystem Hierarchy Standard</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Grid_file_system" title="Grid file system">Grid file system</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Semantic_file_system" title="Semantic file system">Semantic file system</a></li></ul></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Path_(computing)" title="Path (computing)">Path</a></li></ul> </div></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="navbox-group" style="width:1%"><a href="/wiki/File_operation" class="mw-redirect" title="File operation">Operations</a></th><td class="navbox-list-with-group navbox-list navbox-even" style="width:100%;padding:0"><div style="padding:0 0.25em"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Open_(system_call)" title="Open (system call)">Open</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Close_(system_call)" title="Close (system call)">Close</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Read_(system_call)" title="Read (system call)">Read</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Write_(system_call)" title="Write (system call)">Write</a></li></ul> </div></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="navbox-group" style="width:1%">Linking</th><td class="navbox-list-with-group navbox-list navbox-odd" style="width:100%;padding:0"><div style="padding:0 0.25em"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/File_descriptor" title="File descriptor">File descriptor</a></li> <li><a class="mw-selflink selflink">Hard link</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Shortcut_(computing)" title="Shortcut (computing)">Shortcut</a> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Alias_(Mac_OS)" title="Alias (Mac OS)">Alias</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Shadow_(OS/2)" title="Shadow (OS/2)">Shadow</a></li></ul></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Symbolic_link" title="Symbolic link">Symbolic link</a></li></ul> </div></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="navbox-group" style="width:1%">Management</th><td class="navbox-list-with-group navbox-list navbox-even" style="width:100%;padding:0"><div style="padding:0 0.25em"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Backup" title="Backup">Backup</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/File_comparison" title="File comparison">File comparison</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/File_copying" title="File copying">File copying</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Data_compression" title="Data compression">Data compression</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/File_manager" title="File manager">File manager</a> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Comparison_of_file_managers" title="Comparison of file managers">Comparison of file managers</a></li></ul></li> <li><a href="/wiki/File_system_fragmentation" title="File system fragmentation">File system fragmentation</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/File-system_permissions" title="File-system permissions">File-system permissions</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/File_transfer" title="File transfer">File transfer</a> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/File_sharing" title="File sharing">File sharing</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/File_synchronization" title="File synchronization">File synchronization</a></li></ul></li> <li><a href="/wiki/File_verification" title="File verification">File verification</a></li></ul> </div></td></tr></tbody></table></div>    </div><noscript><img src="https://login.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:CentralAutoLogin/start?useformat=desktop&type=1x1&usesul3=0" alt="" width="1" height="1" style="border: none; position: absolute;"></noscript> <div class="printfooter" data-nosnippet="">Retrieved from "<a dir="ltr" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Hard_link&oldid=1263936984">https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Hard_link&oldid=1263936984</a>"</div></div> <div id="catlinks" class="catlinks" data-mw="interface"><div id="mw-normal-catlinks" class="mw-normal-catlinks"><a href="/wiki/Help:Category" title="Help:Category">Category</a>: <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Category:Computer_file_systems" title="Category:Computer file systems">Computer file systems</a></li></ul></div><div id="mw-hidden-catlinks" class="mw-hidden-catlinks mw-hidden-cats-hidden">Hidden categories: <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Category:CS1:_unfit_URL" title="Category:CS1: unfit URL">CS1: unfit URL</a></li><li><a href="/wiki/Category:Articles_with_short_description" title="Category:Articles with short description">Articles with short description</a></li><li><a href="/wiki/Category:Short_description_is_different_from_Wikidata" title="Category:Short description is different from Wikidata">Short description is different from Wikidata</a></li></ul></div></div> </div> </main> </div> <div class="mw-footer-container"> <footer id="footer" class="mw-footer" > <ul id="footer-info"> <li id="footer-info-lastmod"> This page was last edited on 19 December 2024, at 13:52<span class="anonymous-show"> (UTC)</span>.</li> <li id="footer-info-copyright">Text is available under the <a href="/wiki/Wikipedia:Text_of_the_Creative_Commons_Attribution-ShareAlike_4.0_International_License" title="Wikipedia:Text of the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License">Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License</a>; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the <a href="https://foundation.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Policy:Terms_of_Use" class="extiw" title="foundation:Special:MyLanguage/Policy:Terms of Use">Terms of Use</a> and <a href="https://foundation.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Policy:Privacy_policy" class="extiw" title="foundation:Special:MyLanguage/Policy:Privacy policy">Privacy Policy</a>. Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://wikimediafoundation.org/">Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.</a>, a non-profit organization.</li> </ul> <ul id="footer-places"> <li id="footer-places-privacy"><a href="https://foundation.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Policy:Privacy_policy">Privacy policy</a></li> <li id="footer-places-about"><a href="/wiki/Wikipedia:About">About Wikipedia</a></li> <li id="footer-places-disclaimers"><a href="/wiki/Wikipedia:General_disclaimer">Disclaimers</a></li> <li id="footer-places-contact"><a href="//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Contact_us">Contact Wikipedia</a></li> <li id="footer-places-wm-codeofconduct"><a href="https://foundation.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Policy:Universal_Code_of_Conduct">Code of Conduct</a></li> <li id="footer-places-developers"><a href="https://developer.wikimedia.org">Developers</a></li> <li id="footer-places-statslink"><a href="https://stats.wikimedia.org/#/en.wikipedia.org">Statistics</a></li> <li id="footer-places-cookiestatement"><a href="https://foundation.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Policy:Cookie_statement">Cookie statement</a></li> <li id="footer-places-mobileview"><a href="//en.m.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Hard_link&mobileaction=toggle_view_mobile" class="noprint stopMobileRedirectToggle">Mobile view</a></li> </ul> <ul id="footer-icons" class="noprint"> <li id="footer-copyrightico"><a href="https://www.wikimedia.org/" class="cdx-button cdx-button--fake-button cdx-button--size-large cdx-button--fake-button--enabled"><picture><source media="(min-width: 500px)" srcset="/static/images/footer/wikimedia-button.svg" width="84" height="29"><img src="/static/images/footer/wikimedia.svg" width="25" height="25" alt="Wikimedia Foundation" lang="en" loading="lazy"></picture></a></li> <li id="footer-poweredbyico"><a href="https://www.mediawiki.org/" class="cdx-button cdx-button--fake-button cdx-button--size-large cdx-button--fake-button--enabled"><picture><source media="(min-width: 500px)" srcset="/w/resources/assets/poweredby_mediawiki.svg" width="88" height="31"><img src="/w/resources/assets/mediawiki_compact.svg" alt="Powered by MediaWiki" lang="en" width="25" height="25" loading="lazy"></picture></a></li> </ul> </footer> </div> </div> </div> <div class="vector-header-container vector-sticky-header-container"> <div id="vector-sticky-header" class="vector-sticky-header"> <div class="vector-sticky-header-start"> <div class="vector-sticky-header-icon-start vector-button-flush-left vector-button-flush-right" aria-hidden="true"> <button class="cdx-button cdx-button--weight-quiet cdx-button--icon-only vector-sticky-header-search-toggle" tabindex="-1" data-event-name="ui.vector-sticky-search-form.icon"><span class="vector-icon mw-ui-icon-search mw-ui-icon-wikimedia-search"></span> <span>Search</span> </button> </div> <div role="search" class="vector-search-box-vue vector-search-box-show-thumbnail vector-search-box"> <div class="vector-typeahead-search-container"> <div class="cdx-typeahead-search cdx-typeahead-search--show-thumbnail"> <form action="/w/index.php" id="vector-sticky-search-form" class="cdx-search-input cdx-search-input--has-end-button"> <div class="cdx-search-input__input-wrapper" data-search-loc="header-moved"> <div class="cdx-text-input cdx-text-input--has-start-icon"> <input class="cdx-text-input__input" type="search" name="search" placeholder="Search Wikipedia"> <span class="cdx-text-input__icon cdx-text-input__start-icon"></span> </div> <input type="hidden" name="title" value="Special:Search"> </div> <button class="cdx-button cdx-search-input__end-button">Search</button> </form> </div> </div> </div> <div class="vector-sticky-header-context-bar"> <nav aria-label="Contents" class="vector-toc-landmark"> <div id="vector-sticky-header-toc" class="vector-dropdown mw-portlet mw-portlet-sticky-header-toc vector-sticky-header-toc vector-button-flush-left" > <input type="checkbox" id="vector-sticky-header-toc-checkbox" role="button" aria-haspopup="true" data-event-name="ui.dropdown-vector-sticky-header-toc" class="vector-dropdown-checkbox " aria-label="Toggle the table of contents" > <label id="vector-sticky-header-toc-label" for="vector-sticky-header-toc-checkbox" class="vector-dropdown-label cdx-button cdx-button--fake-button cdx-button--fake-button--enabled cdx-button--weight-quiet cdx-button--icon-only " aria-hidden="true" ><span class="vector-icon mw-ui-icon-listBullet mw-ui-icon-wikimedia-listBullet"></span> <span class="vector-dropdown-label-text">Toggle the table of contents</span> </label> <div class="vector-dropdown-content"> <div id="vector-sticky-header-toc-unpinned-container" class="vector-unpinned-container"> </div> </div> </div> </nav> <div class="vector-sticky-header-context-bar-primary" aria-hidden="true" ><span class="mw-page-title-main">Hard link</span></div> </div> </div> <div class="vector-sticky-header-end" aria-hidden="true"> <div class="vector-sticky-header-icons"> <a href="#" class="cdx-button cdx-button--fake-button cdx-button--fake-button--enabled cdx-button--weight-quiet cdx-button--icon-only" id="ca-talk-sticky-header" tabindex="-1" data-event-name="talk-sticky-header"><span class="vector-icon mw-ui-icon-speechBubbles mw-ui-icon-wikimedia-speechBubbles"></span> <span></span> </a> <a href="#" class="cdx-button cdx-button--fake-button cdx-button--fake-button--enabled cdx-button--weight-quiet cdx-button--icon-only" id="ca-subject-sticky-header" tabindex="-1" data-event-name="subject-sticky-header"><span class="vector-icon mw-ui-icon-article mw-ui-icon-wikimedia-article"></span> <span></span> </a> <a href="#" class="cdx-button cdx-button--fake-button cdx-button--fake-button--enabled cdx-button--weight-quiet cdx-button--icon-only" id="ca-history-sticky-header" tabindex="-1" data-event-name="history-sticky-header"><span class="vector-icon mw-ui-icon-wikimedia-history mw-ui-icon-wikimedia-wikimedia-history"></span> <span></span> </a> <a href="#" class="cdx-button cdx-button--fake-button cdx-button--fake-button--enabled cdx-button--weight-quiet cdx-button--icon-only mw-watchlink" id="ca-watchstar-sticky-header" tabindex="-1" data-event-name="watch-sticky-header"><span class="vector-icon mw-ui-icon-wikimedia-star mw-ui-icon-wikimedia-wikimedia-star"></span> <span></span> </a> <a href="#" class="cdx-button cdx-button--fake-button cdx-button--fake-button--enabled cdx-button--weight-quiet cdx-button--icon-only" id="ca-edit-sticky-header" tabindex="-1" data-event-name="wikitext-edit-sticky-header"><span class="vector-icon mw-ui-icon-wikimedia-wikiText mw-ui-icon-wikimedia-wikimedia-wikiText"></span> <span></span> </a> <a href="#" class="cdx-button cdx-button--fake-button cdx-button--fake-button--enabled cdx-button--weight-quiet cdx-button--icon-only" id="ca-ve-edit-sticky-header" tabindex="-1" data-event-name="ve-edit-sticky-header"><span class="vector-icon mw-ui-icon-wikimedia-edit mw-ui-icon-wikimedia-wikimedia-edit"></span> <span></span> </a> <a href="#" class="cdx-button cdx-button--fake-button cdx-button--fake-button--enabled cdx-button--weight-quiet cdx-button--icon-only" id="ca-viewsource-sticky-header" tabindex="-1" data-event-name="ve-edit-protected-sticky-header"><span class="vector-icon mw-ui-icon-wikimedia-editLock mw-ui-icon-wikimedia-wikimedia-editLock"></span> <span></span> </a> </div> <div class="vector-sticky-header-buttons"> <button class="cdx-button cdx-button--weight-quiet mw-interlanguage-selector" id="p-lang-btn-sticky-header" tabindex="-1" data-event-name="ui.dropdown-p-lang-btn-sticky-header"><span class="vector-icon mw-ui-icon-wikimedia-language mw-ui-icon-wikimedia-wikimedia-language"></span> <span>15 languages</span> </button> <a href="#" class="cdx-button cdx-button--fake-button cdx-button--fake-button--enabled cdx-button--weight-quiet cdx-button--action-progressive" id="ca-addsection-sticky-header" tabindex="-1" data-event-name="addsection-sticky-header"><span class="vector-icon mw-ui-icon-speechBubbleAdd-progressive mw-ui-icon-wikimedia-speechBubbleAdd-progressive"></span> <span>Add topic</span> </a> </div> <div class="vector-sticky-header-icon-end"> <div class="vector-user-links"> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="mw-portlet mw-portlet-dock-bottom emptyPortlet" id="p-dock-bottom"> <ul> </ul> </div> <script>(RLQ=window.RLQ||[]).push(function(){mw.config.set({"wgHostname":"mw-web.codfw.main-5c6f46dcf-kr5nc","wgBackendResponseTime":152,"wgPageParseReport":{"limitreport":{"cputime":"0.300","walltime":"0.412","ppvisitednodes":{"value":1202,"limit":1000000},"postexpandincludesize":{"value":78759,"limit":2097152},"templateargumentsize":{"value":952,"limit":2097152},"expansiondepth":{"value":8,"limit":100},"expensivefunctioncount":{"value":4,"limit":500},"unstrip-depth":{"value":1,"limit":20},"unstrip-size":{"value":68413,"limit":5000000},"entityaccesscount":{"value":0,"limit":400},"timingprofile":["100.00% 324.301 1 -total"," 45.05% 146.090 1 Template:Reflist"," 37.57% 121.836 14 Template:Cite_web"," 27.76% 90.025 6 Template:Navbox"," 25.27% 81.958 1 Template:File_systems"," 19.27% 62.485 1 Template:Short_description"," 11.03% 35.781 2 Template:Pagetype"," 5.46% 17.707 1 Template:For"," 5.15% 16.696 3 Template:Main_other"," 4.60% 14.929 1 Template:SDcat"]},"scribunto":{"limitreport-timeusage":{"value":"0.183","limit":"10.000"},"limitreport-memusage":{"value":4867480,"limit":52428800}},"cachereport":{"origin":"mw-web.eqiad.main-6df8dbf59d-7k5x5","timestamp":"20250331031134","ttl":2592000,"transientcontent":false}}});});</script> <script type="application/ld+json">{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@type":"Article","name":"Hard link","url":"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Hard_link","sameAs":"http:\/\/www.wikidata.org\/entity\/Q599843","mainEntity":"http:\/\/www.wikidata.org\/entity\/Q599843","author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Contributors to Wikimedia projects"},"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https:\/\/www.wikimedia.org\/static\/images\/wmf-hor-googpub.png"}},"datePublished":"2004-03-01T11:36:28Z","dateModified":"2024-12-19T13:52:52Z","headline":"directory entry that associates a name with a file"}</script> </body> </html>