it is from the syllabus of Bsc IT
2007-10-11 03:36:35 · 5 answers · asked by bamaboy 1 in Computers & Internet ➔ Programming & Design
If you link two files, any changes in the original file will change in the linked file. This is especially useful to me in Excel where you might have a file containing daily receipts, and you want to "paste, special, as link" to another file which will contain weekly or monthly totals only.
A copy of a file is just that. Any change made to the original file will not change the copy - unless you again copy the original to the same name as the first copy.
2007-10-11 03:57:29 · answer #1 · answered by TheHumbleOne 7 · 2⤊ 0⤋
By linking you are only creating a pathway for where you can work on the file without altering the original. Where as copying a file, you are making a duplicate of the original (so you have two of the same file now), which is free for you to alter but this time it overwrites and saves over the copied file...again not over the original.
Hope that helps and makes sense!
2007-10-12 13:15:20 · answer #2 · answered by Bepa 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
As stated previously, linking is like a shortcut, while copying makes a duplicate. So if you make a link and use that to edit the file, the original file will be changed. If you make a copy and edit it, only the copy will change.
2007-10-11 10:46:05 · answer #3 · answered by Fraggle 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
In addition to all the answers given above..
there are 2 kinds of links in Unix machines.
Hard link and soft link.
For the difference plz go to..
http://linuxgazette.net/105/pitcher.html
This is a very good link and explains linking very well.
2007-10-12 01:43:34 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
linking is basically creating a short cut. you can do man ln on unix to know more about it. cp is creating a physical copy of the file.
2007-10-11 10:40:54 · answer #5 · answered by chitrakg 2 · 2⤊ 0⤋