symbolic link

In computing, a symbolic link (often shortened to symlink and also known as a soft link) consists of a special type of  file that serves as a reference to another file or directory. Unix-like operating systems in particular often feature symbolic links.Unlike a hard link, which points directly to data and represents another name for the same file, a symbolic link contains a path which identifies the target of the symbolic link. Thus, when a user removes a symbolic link, the file to which it pointed remains unaffected. Symbolic links may refer to files even on other mounted file systems. The term orphan refers to a symbolic link whose target does not exist.
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<file format> (SYLK) A standard file format for spreadsheets, (not to be confused with symbolic link).
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(1999-12-06)

<file system> (Or "symlink", "soft link" (by contrast with "hard link"), "shortcut", "alias") A special type of Unix file which refers to another file by its pathname. A symbolic link is created with the "ln" (