PHP symlink() Function

Definition

PHP symlink() Function creates a symbolic link.

Syntax

PHP symlink() Function has the following syntax.

Parameter

Return

This function returns TRUE on success, or FALSE on failure.

Note

The symlink() function creates a symbolic link from the existing target with the specified name link. This function does not work on Windows platforms.

Unix links come in two types:

• hard links, which are files, and
• symlinks also known as soft links, which are pointers to other files.

Delete a hard link, delete the file unless there are other hard links pointing to the same file, whereas if you delete a symlink, the original file remains untouched.

We can create hard links and symlinks using the link() and symlink() functions, both of which take a target and a link name and return true if they were successful or false otherwise.

Example

Creates a symbolic link.

<?PHP/*  w  ww  .  jav a 2s  .c  om*/
      $result = link("/home/user1/myfile.txt", "/home/user2/myfile.txt");
      if (!$result) {
             echo "Hard link could not be created!\n";
      } else {
             $result = symlink("/home/user1/myfile.txt", "/home/user2/myfile.txt");
             if (!$result) {
                 echo "Symlink could not be created either!\n";
             }
      }
?>