Use PHP to Create Symbolic Links without Shell Access
by Jeff Starr on Monday, June 25, 2007 – 2 Responses
![[ Image: Chain Linkage ]](http://perishablepress.com/press/wp-content/images/2007/misc-chunks/symbolic-linkage.gif)
On Unix systems, a symbolic link refers to a file that points to another file or directory. Symbolic links serve as powerful tools for web designers and developers. Using shell access, creating a symbolic link requires only one line of code:
ln -s /home/username/public_html/directory1 /home/username/public_html/directory2Simple enough. Assuming you have access to the linux shell. Unfortunately, many shared hosting environments deny shell access. Fortunately, creating symbolic links — also called “symlinks” — remains a possibility via the PHP symlink() function. Check it out..
Symbolic Links via PHP:
Edit, copy & paste the following line of code into a PHP (.php) file and upload it to the root directory on your server (i.e., the directory that contains “public_html”):
<?php symlink('/home/username/public_html/directory1', '/home/username/public_html/directory2'); ?>Next, trigger the function by calling the PHP file via your browser. If you see a blank page, you are good to go — the symbolic link has been created according to the specified parameters. To create another symbolic link, simply edit the parameters and repeat the process.
Focused on clean code and quality content, Perishable Press is the online home of Jeff Starr, author, artist, designer, developer, and all-around swell guy. 
2 Responses
Tiagotb – #1
Very thanks…
this tutorial help-me a lot =D
Perishable – #2
Very welcome ;)