Question

What are links referred to as in file attributes?

(a) number of filenames of a single file that are maintained by the system

(b) number of duplicates of a single file

(c) number of copies of a single file

(d) number of files present in a directory

The question was asked in a job interview.

The origin of the question is Listing File and Directory Attributes in section Basic File Attributes of Unix

Answer 1

Correct answer is (a) number of filenames of a single file that are maintained by the system

The explanation is: Links are defined as the number of filenames of a single file that are maintained by the system. This file can be accessed through as many filenames as there is a number of links to that file.