How-To: Ubuntu System Links
What are System Links?
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Similar to Shortcuts
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Shorcuts
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- Shortcuts point to a certain location.
- When you click a shortcut your address changes to that location.
- If you rename the file the shortcut points to, the shortcut will no longer work.
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System Links
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Similar to shortcuts
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- They are similar in that they point to some location
- What is different is they are handles at an OS level, making the folder seem like it exists at that location
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Example
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- Real Folder = /media/external/
- System Link Points to: /home/slayer/Documents/storage/
- Therefore:
- a document readme.txt, located /media/external/readme.txt
- navigating through your system link appears to exist at /home/slayer/Documents/storage/readme.txt
- rather than a shortcut pointing you to /media/external/readme.txt
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Usage
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Why Useful?
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- Since System Links are handles in the OS, programs "think" they exist at the location the system link points to
- So if I open gimp to do some file editing,
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My use
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- Restrict users to seeing limited folders.
- If I give a friend access to a folder, "guest" and I fill it with system links,
- My friend will only be able to see the system links, and can't see the folders that are a level above the system links in their real lcation.
- Consolidate all of my folders
- I have a folder called "Global" and it is filled with system links to other folders such as "Documents" or "Music".
- Those folders actually exist all on separate hard drives.
- Because of the System Links, my programs "think" they are actually located in "Global/Documents" and "Global/Music"
- This gives me a constant point of reference, even if I swap hard drives or change the physical location of the data.
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Gimp Ex
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- For example, I open GIMP to edit some art I am working on called picture.jpg.
- Setup
- Let's assume my images are located in some obscure location, say /media/foodrive/namehiearchy/morelocation/images/picture.jpg
- I have made a system link of the images folder and called it work /home/slayer/Documents/work/picture.jpg
- I have made a shortcut to the images called it "link to images" in "/home/slayer/Documents/link to images"
- Differences between the links
- In Gimp, I select open a file, I navigate to /home/slayer/Documents
- IF I click /home/slayer/Documents/work
- It will take me to the location /home/slayer/Documents/work/
- IF I click "/home/slayer/Documents/link to images"
- It will take me to the location /media/foodrive/namehiearchy/morelocation/images/picture.jpg
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Installation
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note: make sure to use the full path (ie /media/external/..../... ) rather than the relative path (/media ) when specifing both the input and output file names and locations. |
Folder
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Command
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- To make a system link of a directory (folder)
#:/~$ ln -sf /source/folder/ /target/location/newfoldername/ |
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Example
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#:/~$ ln -sf /media/external/data/ ~/Documents/archives/ |
- This makes a link called data, which when clicked will show the contents of data
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File
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Command
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- To make a system link of an individual file
#:/~$ ln -s /source/folder/ /target/location/newfoldername/ |
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Example
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#:/~$ ln -s /media/external/data/file.txt ~/Desktop/mylink.txt |
- This makes a link to the file called called mylink.txt, which will act like it exists on the desktop
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GNU/Linux •
HOWTO
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