What does "deleted" mean for a symbolic link?

Question

linux

I looked at the contents of the process pack (/proc/some_PID), and saw this:

# ls -l proc/2978
lrwxrwxrwx    1 root     root             0 Oct 11 10:50 exe -> /usb_bus (deleted)

I correctly understood that this file was deleted?
If so, why did I manage to successfully count it md5?

Answer 1

Deleting a file and its corresponding handle are two separate operations. If fd is still active (for example, some process is using it), then even with a deleted file, you can touch its insides, including calculating their hash.