How to Create Relative or Absolute Symbolic Links

Relative symbolic links identify the location of the target based on their own folder. For example, a relative symbolic link to a target file in the same folder will always attempt to access a target with the specified filename in the same folder, even if the symbolic link is moved. You can create relative or absolute symbolic links, but all symbolic links are relative by default. For example, consider the following commands, which attempt to create a symbolic link named Link.txt to a file named Target.txt and then attempt to access the symbolic link before and after moving the target file.

C:\>mklink link.txt target.txt
C:\>type link.txt

  Hello, world.

C:\>REM Move link.txt to a different folder
C:\>move link.txt C:\links

	1 file(s) moved.

C:\>cd links
C:\links>type link.txt

  The system cannot find the file specified.

C:\links>move \target.txt C:\links
C:\links>type link.txt

  Hello, world.

In the previous example, moving the symbolic link to a different folder causes Windows to be unable to locate the target because the symbolic link is a relative link pointing to a file named Target.txt in the same folder. When both the link and the target are moved to the same folder, the symbolic link works again.

Now consider the same example using an absolute symbolic link, created by specifying the full path to the target file:

C:\>mklink link.txt C:\target.txt
C:\>type link.txt

  Hello, world.

C:\>REM Move link.txt to a different folder
C:\>move link.txt C:\links

	1 file(s) moved.

C:\>cd links
C:\links>type link.txt

  Hello, world.

C:\links>move C:\target.txt C:\links\
C:\links>type link.txt

  The system cannot find the file specified.

In the last example, specifying the full path to the target file creates an absolute symbolic link that references the full path to the target file. Therefore, the symbolic link still works after it is moved to a different folder. However, moving the target file makes it inaccessible.