Create a folder named ‘Ryan’ under your home directory for this tutorial. Suppose Ryan is a regular user and has basic computer knowledge on creating and saving documents only, you’d want to create a shortcut to his folder on your desktop for him to navigate easily. Open up your terminal emulator program, assuming Ryan’s situation, the below command would create a symbolic link to his folder on your desktop:
ln -s ~/Ryan ~/Desktop
After executing that command you will notice a new folder icon on your desktop that looks like a shortcut. And suppose, in your case, you wish to create a shortcut to your Document directory on your Linux desktop. Similar to that above command, you’d have done it this way:
ln -s ~/Documents ~/Desktop
You can also create a shortcut to almost any type of file. Try creating one yourself for audio files, custom applications, word documents, etc.
A lil’ tad bit advanced
What if you wish to create a symbolic link to a file or folder that is stored in another partition? There is a way I can show you how to achieve that. Mount the appropriate partition in /mnt or /media during computer startup, by editing the /etc/fstab file. Then create a symbolic link to the required folder or file on your home directory. Below is a screenshot of an edited fstab file that mounts my “work partition” to /media/hub on computer starts up.
Technical detail
ln is a utility program, succeeding it -s is the argument that tells ln to create a symbolic (or soft) link. The tilde symbol and forward slash ~/ is used to indicate the given program to start navigating from the user’s root directory (home directory).
An advantage
There is an advantage in using this symbolic link and that is… ahem, you can create a symbolic link to a directory that exists in another partition. So in the event your Linux partition fails, you can rest assured that your documents, stored and linked from, in another partition stay intact. That’s how I take measure to keep my important directories and files safe, and easy to recover.
What about GNOME?
GNOME is a very unique desktop environment that keeps its design goals on “simplicity”. So there is no such thing as “desktop icons” on GNOME, only free workspace. Creating a symbolic link on its Desktop directory is possible but expect no shortcut icon at all. I recommend creating links on your home directory and navigating it using a file manager program which is efficient.
Conclusion
Do not create symbolic links to removable storage media like your pen drive or portable hard disk. It’s impractical (with broken links lying around your desktop or home directory) though there’s no danger in that 🙂 Have a great alternative idea on how to create shortcuts on Linux desktop? Please share your thoughts in the comment section below.
