Resolving a symbolic link in a path name
A symbolic link is a file that contains the path name for another file; that path name can be relative or absolute. If a symbolic link contains a relative path name, the path name is relative to the directory containing the symbolic link.
If you use a symbolic link as a component of a path name, during
path name resolution the original path name is changed. How it changes
depends on whether the symbolic link contains a relative or absolute
path name. For example, consider the path name /u/turbo/dlg/lev1:
- If dlg is a symbolic link containing the relative path
name dbopt/pgma/src, dlg is replaced by the relative
path name. This is how it resolves:
/u/turbo/dlg/lev1 → /u/turbo/dbopt/pgma/src/lev1
- If dlg is a symbolic link containing the absolute path
name /usr/bin/dbopt/pgma/src, then the components in the original
path name that preceded dlg are replaced by the absolute path
name in the symbolic link. This is how it resolves:
/u/turbo/dlg/lev1 → /usr/bin/dbopt/pgma/src/lev1
Note: An
external link is a type of symbolic link that refers to an object
outside of the hierarchical file system.
As used by the Network File System feature,
an external link refers to an MVS™ data
set name.