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Owen O'Malley commented on HADOOP-4044: --------------------------------------- Getting back to the nuts and bolts of this patch, I don't really like the structure of this implementation. I think the LinkResolvers and the myriad anonymous classes that extend it are very hard to read. I'd much rather have something like: {code} abstract class LinkResult<T> { boolean isLink(); T getResult(); FileSystem getFileSystem() throws IOException; /** Throws an exception if too deep. */ Path getNewPath() throws IOException; } class DistributedFileSystem extends FileSystem { ... public FSDataInputStream open(Path p, int buffer) throws IOException { LinkResult<FSDataInputStream> result = dfs.open(p, buffer, verifyChecksum, statistics); if (result.isLink()) { return result.getFileSystem().open(result.getPath(), buffer); } else { return result.getResult(); } } } {code} It is *much* easier to follow and understand and forces no changes on FileSystems that don't support links. > Create symbolic links in HDFS > ----------------------------- > > Key: HADOOP-4044 > URL: https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/HADOOP-4044 > Project: Hadoop Core > Issue Type: New Feature > Components: dfs > Reporter: dhruba borthakur > Assignee: dhruba borthakur > Attachments: symLink1.patch, symLink1.patch, symLink4.patch, > symLink5.patch, symLink6.patch, symLink8.patch, symLink9.patch > > > HDFS should support symbolic links. A symbolic link is a special type of file > that contains a reference to another file or directory in the form of an > absolute or relative path and that affects pathname resolution. Programs > which read or write to files named by a symbolic link will behave as if > operating directly on the target file. However, archiving utilities can > handle symbolic links specially and manipulate them directly. -- This message is automatically generated by JIRA. - You can reply to this email to add a comment to the issue online.