Understand what symbolic link in Python is

• symbolic link

  Soft connection is essentially a Unix concept, not a Python concept.

• link in Unix

  A link in UNIX is a pointer to a file.

  Like pointers in any programming languages, links in UNIX are pointers pointing to a file or a directory.

  Creating links is a kind of shortcuts to access a file.

  There are two types of links:

  1. Soft link or Symbolic links
  2. Hard Links

  These links behave differently when the source of the link is moved or removed.

  Symbolic links are not updated(they merely contain a string which is the pathname of its target); hard links always refer to the source, even if moved or removed.

• Python related functions

  os.readlink(path) : returns a string representing the path to which the symbolic link points.

  os.symlink(src, dst) : create symbolic link.

• References

1. Soft and Hard links in Unix/Linux