Is a shortcut and symbolic link the same? If not, how do I create a shortcut?

I found this link on Wikipedia: According to them Symlinks are not really shortcuts.

I had the need to create a shortcut to a program on the Desktop and I wanted to do this using a terminal command. I could not find one. Rather I bumped into the ln command which does pretty much the same (to my knowledge).

So if it's not the same, how do I create a shortcut?

Thanks!

1 Answer

They're similar things, but while a link it's just that, a link to a file or folder, a shortcut can contain more information, like launching parameters, personalized icons, etc. To create a symbolic link you just need to do in a terminal:

ln -s /path/to/file /path/to/symboliclink

To create shortcuts with personalized options, there's a program called arronax:

sudo apt-get install arronax

You can create shortcuts, save where you want (usually the desktop or in $HOME/.local/share/applications if you want them to appear in the unity dash), set icons, set if you want to run the program in a terminal or not... etc.

Here's an example:

Hope it helps!

2

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