New Input/Output 2 - Beginning Java 8 Language Features - page 430

Operations on a symbolic link are transparent to the application. When an operation is performed on a symbolic
link, the operating system performs the operation on the target of the link. For example, performing a read/write
operation on a symbolic link performs a read/write on its target. However, the delete, move, and rename operations
are performed directly on the link, rather than on its target. Sometimes it is possible to have a circular reference in a
symbolic link, where the target of a symbolic link points back to the original link.
The NIO.2 API fully supports symbolic links. It has safeguards in place to detect a circular reference in a symbolic
link. You can work with symbolic links using the java.nio.file.Files class. You can use its isSymbolicLink(Path p)
method to check if the file denoted by the specified path is a symbolic link. The createSymbolicLink() method of the
Files class is used to create a symbolic link. Note that the createSymbolicLink() is an optional operation, which may
not be supported on all platforms.

Path existingFilePath = Paths.get("C:\\poems\\luci1.txt");
Path symLinkPath = Paths.get("C:\\luci1_link.txt");
try {
Files.createSymbolicLink(symLinkPath, existingFilePath);
}
catch (IOException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}

The NIO.2 API follows the symbolic link by default. In some cases, you can specify whether you want to follow a
symbolic link or not. The option not to follow a symbolic link is indicated by using the enum constant LinkOption.
NOFOLLOW_LINKS . The LinkOption enum is declared in the java.nio.file package. Methods supporting this option
let you pass an argument of the LinkOption type.

■ the NIO.2 apI also supports regular links (also known as hard links). You can use the createLink(Path
newLink, Path existingPath) method of the Files class to create a hard link.

Tip

Different Forms of a Path
You can get different type of representations for a path. Suppose you create a Path object as follows:

// Create a Path object to represent a relative path
Path p1 = Paths.get("test.txt");

Here, p1 is a relative path. You can get the absolute path that is represented by p1 using its toAbsolutePath()
method as follows:

// Get the absolute path represented by p1
Path p1AbsPath = p1.toAbsolutePath();

Now the p1AbsPath is the absolute path for p1 . For example, on Windows, p1AbsPath may look like C:\testapp\
test.txt . If a path is not an absolute path, the toAbsolutePath() method uses a platform-dependent default
directory to resolve the path to give you the absolute path. If the path is an absolute path, the toAbsolutePath()
method returns the same path.