the same
.IR "i-node number" ,
where an i-node number is an index into the i-node table,
-which contains metadata about all files on a filesystem.
+which contains metadata about all files on a file system.
See
.BR stat (2).)
Changes to a file are independent of the name used to reference the file.
Hard links may not refer to directories
-(to prevent the possibility of loops within the filesystem tree,
+(to prevent the possibility of loops within the file system tree,
which would confuse many programs)
-and may not refer to files on different filesystems
-(because i-node numbers are not unique across filesystems).
+and may not refer to files on different file systems
+(because i-node numbers are not unique across file systems).
A symbolic link is a special type of file whose contents are a string
that is the pathname another file, the file to which the link refers.
In other words, a symbolic link is a pointer to another name,
and not to an underlying object.
For this reason, symbolic links may refer to directories and may cross
-filesystem boundaries.
+file system boundaries.
There is no requirement that the pathname referred to by a symbolic link
should exist.
to be a
.IR "dangling link" .
-Because a symbolic link and its referenced object coexist in the filesystem
+Because a symbolic link and its referenced object coexist in the file system
name space, confusion can arise in distinguishing between the link itself
and the referenced object.
On historical systems,