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Question: What is a symbolic link and a shell alias? Answer: A symbolic link, aka soft link or symlink, is a special kind of file that points to another file. A shell alias allows a string to be substituted for a word when it is used as the first word of a simple command. The ln -s command creates the symbolic link.
A symbolic link is a more advanced type of alias that works in every application on the system, including command-line utilities in the terminal. A symbolic link you create appears to apps to be the same as the original file or folder it's pointing at—even though it's just a link.
(2) In the Mac, an alias is an icon that points to a program or data file. The Mac counterpart to a Windows "shortcut," an alias can be placed on the desktop or stored in other folders, and clicking the alias is the same as clicking the original file's icon.
A symbolic link is a file-system object that points to another file system object. The object being pointed to is called the target. Symbolic links are transparent to users; the links appear as normal files or directories, and can be acted upon by the user or application in exactly the same manner.
While symbolic links are a feature of the file system, aliases are a feature of OS X. I don't know if they still use that technique, but back in the days of Mac OS Classic or even System 7, they were a file with just a resource fork which had a special resource telling the OS what path AND what file-id the file had.
Symbolic links are more like a database entry on file system level. They differ from hard links in the point that they get invalid when you delete or move the target file. Hard links are actual file entries in the file systems catalog pointing to the same location on your storage medium.
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