#compsci 

```
pete@icebox:~$ ls -li
140 drwxr-xr-x 2 pete pete 6 Jan 20 20:13 Desktop
141 drwxr-xr-x 2 pete pete 6 Jan 20 20:01 Documents
```
The third field in this case is the link count - the total number of hard links an inode has.

## Symlinks
Symbolic links, or soft links, or symlinks, are "shortcuts" that allow us to link to another file by its filename. These link paths on different volumes or file systems. May point to an arbitrary path that doesn't point to anything.

$ ln -s %original file% %link name%

## Hardlinks
A hard link just creates another file with a link to the same inode. These do not link paths on different volumes or file systems. Must refer to an existing file.
$ ln %original file% %link name%


Example:
assume you have a directory /home/user/something/
It will have a link count of 2, because it is mentioned in the inode of the /home/user directory and its own directory (./)