what kind of link does this option creates? because is not a normal ln -s in thunar case i can move this link around it never breaks but the normal ln -s cant move moved around
It is a regular symbolic link as you can see when you list the directory (or just the link).
ls -al ~/Desktop/target_file
If you create a symbolic link like this:
ln -s ~/some_directory/target_file target_file
you can move it around - the name stays the same (of course) and the link still points to the correct location
xfce:thunar:send-to [Xfce Docs]
Thunar includes a Send To menu, which provides possible targets where files and folders can be sent. To access the Send To menu, choose File → Send To from the main menu, or right-click on a file or folder and choose Send To.
By default, the Send To menu includes an entry named Desktop (Create Link) for all files and folders, which simply creates a link on the desktop for each selected file.
nope, like i said normal ln -s cannot be moved around if u move it to another folder it breaks
I have to disagree - I’m sure because I just tested it
(and gave an example)
in order make sure not to pretend I know, but actually do know.
You can move the link as you like - you just can’t displace the target of the link - then it will obviously break.
cat test1.txt
Nachlese
ln -s test1.txt test2.txt
cat test2.txt
Nachlese
mkdir test2
mv test2.txt ..... /test2
cd test2/
cat test2.txt
cat: test2.txt: No such file or directory
See my example.
There are multiple ways to create a symbolic link.
Yours is different from what I did.
ln -s Target LinkName
where Target is the full Path
create a link in thunar using the option send to
ls
test1_thunar.txt test1.txt
cat test1_thunar.txt
Nachlese
mkdir test_thunar
mv test1_thunar.txt /test/test_thunar
cat test_thunar/test1_thunar.txt
Nachlese
the link never broke even if i move the shortcut in another folder so is not ln -s
wrong conclusion
Do actually use ln -s instead of Thunar and you’ll see.
and use ls -al - not just ls - it may make things more transparent
take the shortcut and move it to another folder
ln -s test1.txt test2.txt
ls -al
mkdir test2
mv test2.txt removed/test/test2
cd test2/
ls -al
cat test2.txt
cat: test2.txt: No such file or directory
again: look at my example
I gave it the full Path - and the link name the same as the original file name
You didn’t.
This obviously won’t work when you are creating the link in the same directory (as you did). Can’t have the same name there.
But the name is not important anyway.
But I will not argue this anymore - you asked a question but won’t accept the answer. 
As far as I can tell, Thunar send-to Desktop is not using -s or --symbolic option to make a symbolic link instead of a hard link
1 Like
… and @KA6T5Q as well:
Demo
create file and a link to it:
jo@mint:~/test4$ touch testfile
jo@mint:~/test4$ ln -s ~/test4/testfile link_to_testfile
jo@mint:~/test4$ ls -al
insgesamt 20
drwxrwxr-x 2 jo jo 4096 Mär 4 17:18 .
drwxr-x---+ 62 jo jo 16384 Mär 4 17:00 ..
lrwxrwxrwx 1 jo jo 23 Mär 4 17:18 link_to_testfile -> /home/jo/test4/testfile
-rw-rw-r-- 1 jo jo 0 Mär 4 17:17 testfile
move the link:
mv link_to_testfile ~/Schreibtisch/
jo@mint:~/test4$ ls -al
insgesamt 20
drwxrwxr-x 2 jo jo 4096 Mär 4 17:19 .
drwxr-x---+ 62 jo jo 16384 Mär 4 17:00 ..
-rw-rw-r-- 1 jo jo 0 Mär 4 17:17 testfile
look at where the link still points to:
jo@mint:~/test4$ ls -al ~/Schreibtisch/link_to_testfile
lrwxrwxrwx 1 jo jo 23 Mär 4 17:18 /home/jo/Schreibtisch/link_to_testfile -> /home/jo/test4/testfile
Thunar creates a link to some file (with the same name) on the Desktop - the file is not already there, but somewhere else.
Not only the exact same thing as a symlink, but simply a symlink.
1 Like
u are correct … the relative path work if the username is one word in English
I think I understand the difference:
a Symbolic link can take both a relative, as well as an absolute path.
If you give it the absolute path, it works everywhere.
If you give it a relative path it becomes invalid the moment it is moved…
1 Like
exactly - that is the difference
it has got nothing to do with the user name or the language being english @KA6T5Q
ln --help
-P, --physical make hard links directly to symbolic links
-r, --relative with -s, create links relative to link location
-s, --symbolic make symbolic links instead of hard links
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