All about links

[nanode]

hi all,

I'm contributing to a project for my local LUG (gslug.org) on file system links. Basically hardlinks, symlinks, the history and uses of each.

If anyone has some material on this, I'd be very appreciative. Here's a basic outline of what I'm looking for:

1) History of links and why they were invented.

2) How do various commands behave with links, (especially symbolic links, of course), and what are some interesting general examples?

3) What do the internals of a symbolic link look like when compared to a directory entry?


Thanks very much.

-nanode