Symlinks are essentially shortcuts to another file or folder. If you use a lot of symbolic links, you might want to quickly get a full list of them for reference. Here’s how to do it.
What are symbolic links?
Symbolic links are reference points for other files and folders. Imagine that you copy and paste a file or folder, but instead of duplicating that content, you just link to the source file or folder and open it when it is accessed. This saves a lot of valuable storage space, and can also streamline workflows in certain situations.
There are two types of symlinks you should know about: Hard symlinks and soft symlinks. They both refer to a specific file or folder, but when a soft symbolic link is accessed, the system redirects you to where the file or folder lives, while hard links make the system think that the symbolic link is the file or folder. real folder.
How to view a list of symbolic links
You can see a list of symbolic links by running a command at the Command Prompt. Open the Command Prompt by clicking the search icon on the Windows taskbar, typing “Command Prompt” in the search box, and clicking “Command Prompt” in the search results.
At the command prompt, run this command:
dir /AL /S c:
A list of all symbolic links in the c: directory will be returned. You can change the directory by substituting c: for the directory from which you want to get a list of symbolic links. For example, if you want to get a list of symbolic links in the d: directory, you would run
dir /AL /S d:
That is all.
If you’re looking at a list of symbolic links on your PC, you probably already know how to create and use them. But this is not a unique feature of Windows: you can also create and use them on Mac or Linux.
