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.

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.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by brewbuck

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.

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Thanks