What is the difference between a hard link and a symbolic (soft) link in Linux?

Hard Link: A directory entry that points directly to the same inode as the original file. Both the original and the hard link are indistinguishable — deleting one doesn’t affect the other. Hard links cannot span filesystems or link to directories.

Symbolic (Soft) Link: A pointer to another file’s path. If the original is deleted, the symlink becomes a broken “dangling” link. Symlinks can cross filesystems and point to directories.

# Hard link
ln original.txt hardlink.txt

# Symbolic link
ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/mysite /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/mysite