Symbolic links in the Android filesystem?

Question

Is it possible to create symbolic links in the Android filesystem? If it's possible, how can I do this?

My Android version is 2.1, I'm using Motorola Defy.

android is not a fileystem. What is the filesystem on which you try to create the symplink? You can use mount in terminal emulator to gather this information — rds, Feb 14 '13 at 10:50
@rds I know that Android is not a file system. I wrote "Android file system" instead of "Android's file system" because I was writting too fast. — castarco, Feb 27 '13 at 14:52
but you still fail to tell what it the underling filesystem you have mounted — rds, Feb 27 '13 at 22:20
@rds I would assume all androids use the same filesystem. If not then I would assume the filesystem depends on OS version. If these assumptions are incorrect please say. Is it phone specific? — AnnanFay, Jan 27 '18 at 17:59
How can I make a symlink (or equivalent) inside /storage/emulated/0? — Irfan Latif, Nov 07 '19 at 01:39
In the Android root filesystem there are many shortcuts/links. I think the original post is about how those are created. I would also like to know this. Searching for shortcuts on Google only gives results for adding shortcuts to home screen, but many people want to make a shortcut from one directory to a directory in another location. — Joshua Robison, Dec 31 '19 at 06:56

score 21 · Accepted Answer · edited Sep 29 '16 at 08:05

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Android does support symbolic links, but certain file systems (e.g. FAT or RFS) do not and you cannot create symbolic links in those partitions. If your device uses a filesystem that supports symbolic links (e.g. ext2, ext3, ext4, yaffs2) then you should be able to use ln -s from the Terminal Emulator.

edited Sep 29 '16 at 08:05

Dan Hulme

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answered Dec 26 '10 at 09:09

Lie Ryan

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score 8 · Answer 2 · edited Mar 20 '17 at 10:18

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I think this question on superuser answers your question, i.e. that the FAT filesystem on the SD card does not support symlinks.

Just to clarify (and as reflected in the SU question/answers I linked): the Android OS supports symlinks, but the FAT filesystem on the SD card does not.

edited Mar 20 '17 at 10:18

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answered Dec 25 '10 at 19:20

Argalatyr

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You're always free to format your SD Card with a modern filesystem (if you don't use it on an archaic operating system, of course) – rds Feb 14 '13 at 10:23

score 6 · Answer 3 · edited Mar 20 '17 at 10:04

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It is possible to do this via the mount -o bind /old/dir /new/dir command as discussed here https://superuser.com/a/377737/45344

You need root I guess.

edited Mar 20 '17 at 10:04

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answered Jan 12 '12 at 18:39

Jus12

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This is the kind of changes which would be lost on reboot. – user2284570 Mar 12 '15 at 00:27
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This is not a symbolic link; it's a bind mount. – endolith Dec 12 '16 at 19:09

score 4 · Answer 4 · edited Dec 20 '18 at 16:45

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You were dealing with /storage/emulated/0/Videos

Android like to make use of the /dev/fuse partition. I do not think you can make a symbolic link in this filesystem. On my htc desire 510, I see this:

/busybox df /storage/emulated/0                                          
Filesystem           1K-blocks      Used Available Use% Mounted on
/dev/fuse              1057284   1040844     16440  98% /mnt/shell/emulated

#

There is some weird stuff going on with /storage

edited Dec 20 '18 at 16:45

xavier_fakerat

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answered Oct 03 '16 at 00:13

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Is this supposed an answer to the question? – FindOutIslamNow Dec 29 '18 at 06:10
/dev/fuse is not a partition, it's a character device which programs use to communicate with kernel in order to mount Filesystem in UserSpacE. @FindOutIslamNow yes partial answer, because Android's FUSE implementation doesn't support symlinks. – Irfan Latif Nov 27 '19 at 05:56
thank you very much for this answer! – Leathan Jul 16 '23 at 01:10

Symbolic links in the Android filesystem?

4 Answers4