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Editorial Team
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Asked: 2026-05-13T15:04:57+00:00

I am somewhat confused how soft links work in unix. See the example. %

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I am somewhat confused how soft links work in unix. See the example. 

% cd /usr/local/
% ls -la
total 6
drwxr-xr-x   2 root     root         512 Jan 19 15:03 .
drwxr-xr-x  41 root     sys         1024 Jan 20 16:24 ..
lrwxrwxrwx   1 root     root          38 Jan 19 15:03 java -> /otherDir/java/jdk1.6.0_17 **<- this is a soft link**

% cd java **<- move to the softlink**

% pwd
/usr/local/java **<- the current location, say LOCATION_A**

% cd /otherDir/java/jdk1.6.0_17/ **<-move to the location of the softlink**

% pwd
/otherDir/java/jdk1.6.0_17 **<- the new current location, say LOCATION_B**

Isn’t this problematic that even though LOCATION_A is LOCATION_B, they have different paths?

Is there a command (other than pwd) that will give the real location of a file (not just how the user go there).

It seems to me like pwd is just the sum of a user’s cd. NOT their current location.

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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    This behaves like this with a purpose. If you cd to /a/b/c/d and then cd to .. then you realistically expect to be in /a/b/c. If c happens to be a symbolic link (or symlink in unix terms – but not soft link) that takes you to /f/g/h, with the behaviour you would like to have you would end up in /f/g and then you (or any program) would not understand how it got there.

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