On Sat, Feb 02, 2002 at 08:33:19PM -0600, ABrady wrote:
> On Sat, 2 Feb 2002 20:38:05 -0500
> Matthew Galgoci <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> implied:
>
> Allow a binary to have more than one name (abiword vs. AbiWord).
>
> > Saving disk space? Allowing a file to have multiple filename pointers
> > to it?
> >
> > On Sun, Feb 03, 2002 at 02:29:39AM +0100, Go, Jeffrey wrote:
> > >
> > > Hi guys,
> > >
> > > What are the real value of symbolic links??
But you can do all those things with a hard link.
The real value of symbolic links is:
1. a symbolic link is not restricted to a single filesystem: i.e.,
a link on, say, /dev/hda1 can point to an object on, say,
/dev/hdc7 if it is a symbolic link. A hard link that "lives"
on /dev/hda1 can only point to an item on /dev/hda1.
2. a symbolic link can point to a directory, a hard link cannot.
3. you can replace (unlink, recreate, etc.) the file that a
symbolic link points to and the link remains unchanged.
This is also potentially negative because you can delete the
object it points to and you then have a dangling link. oops.
I don't know that a symbolic link saves disk space, either,... it requires
at least a directory entry in the place where it lives. On most Unixes
it also actually is a small file with some redirection info in it. It is
my understanding that on an ext2 filesystem it might not necessarily have
the file if the linked-to item's path is short enough it may be stored
directly in the inode occupied by the link. A hard link, OTOH, is nothing
more than another directory entry, no more, no less.
--
---- Fred Smith -- [EMAIL PROTECTED] -----------------------------
"For him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you before his
glorious presence without fault and with great joy--to the only God our Savior
be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before
all ages, now and forevermore! Amen."
----------------------------- Jude 1:24,25 (niv) -----------------------------
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