Why can't I create a hard link in a directory on Linux?

tux_tina

I just started learning about the Linux command line with the book "The Linux Command Line". I was trying to create a hard link by following instructions from the book and typing this command: ln fun fun-hard . But I kept getting this result ln: fun: hard link not allowed for directory After doing some research, I found that hard links can't be created in directories. But if this is correct, why does the book include instructions for creating a...

Originally asked by EhizSuperstar on Stack Exchange (unix) (CC BY-SA 4.0).

uphilltech

Great question — answering as the UphillTech team:

You tried to create a hardlink to a directory root@rpiserver:~# mkdir fun root@rpiserver:~# ln fun fun_hard ln: fun: hard link not allowed for directory root@rpiserver:~# According to ln --help this is not possible -d, -F, --directory allow the superuser to attempt to hard link directories (note: will probably fail due to system restrictions, even for the superuser) Even as superuser with -d this failes here: root@rpiserver:~# ln -d fun fun_hard ln: failed to create hard link 'fun_hard' => 'fun': Operation not permitted (All of this was tested here on a raspberry pi, using ext4 as file system)

Full answer by Bonsi: https://unix.stackexchange.com/a/666458 (CC BY-SA 4.0).

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