There are three types of file links supported in the NTFS file system:
- hard links
- junctions
- symbolic links.
Hard Links
A hard link is the file system representation of a file by which more than one path references a single file in the same volume. A hard link directly points to the file, and acts to the operating system as if it is the file itself. You’ll want to use this option the majority of the time if you are trying to fake an application’s directory.
NTFS Junctions (or) Soft Links
A soft link on filesystems is not a link to a file itself, but to a file name; this also creates aliasing, but in a different way. A soft link is essentially a shortcut to a file or folder – if you are using Windows explorer, you’ll be redirected to the directory if you double-click on a shortcut, it won’t pretend its part of the filesystem. You can still directly reference or open a file with the symlinked path, and it mostly works.
A junction (also called a soft link) differs from a hard link in that the storage objects it references are separate directories, and a junction can link directories located on different local volumes on the same computer. Otherwise, junctions operate identically to hard links. Junctions are implemented through reparse points.
An NTFS junction point is a feature of the NTFS file system that provides the ability to create a symbolic link to a directory which then functions as an alias of that directory. This has many benefits over a Windows shell shortcut (.lnk) file, such as allowing access to files within the directory via Windows Explorer, the Command Prompt, etc.
Symbolic Link
A NTFS symbolic link (symlink) is a filesystem object in the NTFS filesystem that points to another filesystem object. The object being pointed to is called the target. Symbolic links should be transparent to users; the links appear as normal files or directories, and can be acted upon by the user or application in exactly the same manner. Symbolic links are designed to aid in migration and application compatibility with POSIX operating systems, and were introduced with the modifications made to the NTFS file system with Windows Vista.
Unlike an NTFS junction point (available since Windows 2000), a symbolic link can also point to a file or remote SMB network path. While NTFS junction points support only absolute paths on local drives, the NTFS symbolic links allow linking using relative paths. Additionally, the NTFS symbolic link implementation provides full support for cross-filesystem links. However, the functionality enabling cross-host symbolic links requires that the remote system also support them, which effectively limits their support to Windows Vista and later Windows operating systems.
In Unix Terminology,
Hard Link => 2 different files pointing to the same Inode. Parent & Child can exist on their own. Delete Parent but child can still survive.
Symbolic Link => 2 different files pointing to 2 different Inodes. Child refers to the parent path. Deleting the Parent has cascading effect(by deleting the Child too) !
