On 06/15/2016 05:16 AM, Emmanuel Seyman wrote:
* Ade [15/06/2016 10:14] :
Id be interested in the original rationale behind this change, as I say, I
I believe the rationale is that there was no sane way to update running
applications (firefox, at least, would start not working in interesting
ways when you update it after having launched it).

Emmanuel
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I think you misunderstand. A file remains in the system until it is no longer needed. The file and its name are two separate things. The name can be unlinked from a file and linked to another file ( as is done by update). The file remains around until all of it's names are unlinked and no process has it open. The reference count is incremented every time the file gets a name or is opened by some process. It is decremented every time a name is unlinked and every time it is closed. It is quietly deleted when the reference count finally goes to zero.

So when you update an application that is running all you do is unlink the file name from the old file and link it to the new file. The old file does not go away because it is open by the running program. When the program exits, the file is deleted (only if the reference count is 0). The next time the program is run it will use the new file.

phil
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