A symbolic link, often shortened to symlink or soft link, is not a traditional file format containing user data like a document or image. Instead, it is a special type of file system object that acts as a pointer or reference to another file or directory located elsewhere in the file system. When an operating system accesses a symbolic link, it transparently redirects the operation to the target file or directory. This mechanism is crucial for creating shortcuts, managing different versions of libraries (like in Linux/Unix systems), and organizing complex directory structures without duplicating data. Symbolic links are distinct from hard links, which point directly to the inode (the data structure describing the file) rather than the path. Symlinks can point across different file systems or partitions, whereas hard links are generally restricted to the same file system. The content of a symlink file itself is simply the text path to its target.