Symbolic Links
The main UT Web server (www.utexas.edu) runs on the UNIX operating system.
In the UNIX world, a symbolic link is similar to an alias on the Macintosh
or a shortcut on the Windows platform by acting as a pointer to a file.
Symbolic links may refer to files or directories. When people access
the symbolic link through the Web they will actually see the target site
in their browser, but the URL in the address/location box is the source
URL not the target URL.
The ln utility is used to create symbolic links. Syntax is
| ln |
-s |
sourcename |
targetname |
where
| sourcename |
= |
the path name of a file to be linked and is an existing file |
| targetname |
= |
the path name of the new file or directory to be created as the
new name, or pseudonym for sourcename and is not an existing file |
For example, if I want main.html (new file) to point to index.html (existing
file), I would type:
ln -s index.html main.html
The symbolic link command is a UNIX command, so you have to be logged
onto UTS in a Telnet session (you cannot create a symbolic link with
an FTP client).
Advantages
- Allows URLs of entire directories to be moved at once.
- Does not break the Back button on the browser.
Disadvantages
- When user types in the wrong URL address, it takes them to the correct
page, but it does not change the URL to the correct address in the
browser's location field.
- Pictures can be broken if the SRC is not fully specified.
- The new page must be on the same server.
- The symbolic link can confuse the results of a search - duplicate
pages may be found for both old & new URL.
- There is no option for showing the old page before going to the new
one.
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