Thread: Question about ls -l command!!!

  1. #1
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    Question about ls -l command!!!

    Hi All,
    While doing ls -l in linux prompt , it displays in the format permission no.of-links user owner no.of-bytes date time name
    I have doubt in no.of-links.Actually empty directory contains 2 links and ordinary files contain 1 link.
    Why it does act like this?What are the links?
    Could anybody explain this little briefly?

    Thanks,
    Rajisankar.
    Last edited by Salem; 06-10-2011 at 01:54 AM. Reason: Inappropriate tags removed

  2. #2
    Officially An Architect brewbuck's Avatar
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    A directory always has at least two links: it links to itself (the "." entry in every directory is a reference to itself). There is also a link due to the parent directory which contains the directory. A file has at least one link, for the directory entry which references it.

    A "link" in this case is not a symbolic link. A link is a mapping from a directory entry to an inode. The number of links to an inode is counted within the inode itself -- this is the number which "ls" is reporting. A link count is always at least 1. A link count of 0 would indicate filesystem corruption.

    Basically it's the number of "pointers" which are "pointing at" the inode.
    Code:
    //try
    //{
    	if (a) do { f( b); } while(1);
    	else   do { f(!b); } while(1);
    //}

  3. #3
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    Quote Originally Posted by brewbuck View Post
    A directory always has at least two links: it links to itself (the "." entry in every directory is a reference to itself). There is also a link due to the parent directory which contains the directory. A file has at least one link, for the directory entry which references it.

    A "link" in this case is not a symbolic link. A link is a mapping from a directory entry to an inode. The number of links to an inode is counted within the inode itself -- this is the number which "ls" is reporting. A link count is always at least 1. A link count of 0 would indicate filesystem corruption.

    Basically it's the number of "pointers" which are "pointing at" the inode.
    Thanks

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