Symbolic links are short files that point to other directories or files.
This short file contains the path name of the object directory or file, and it is used as a shorthand way of accessing those files or directories. Links also allow a user to access data in someone else's directory or to a specific file in someone else's directory. Finally, links can be used to organize a series of data files in subdirectories. In short, symbolic links allow users to bypass lengthy Unix path names. The ten characters in the first column of the listing represent the mode of the entry.