On Sat, 27 Oct 2001, Rob Adams wrote:

> > Here endeth the lesson...
>
> And if you delete a hardlink, you also delete the parent (same inode) but
> you can freely delete a symlink without deleting the parent.

If I've understood you correctly, then you are wrong. If "the parent" is
another link referencing the same inode, so that the link count is two,
(there are two directory entries referencing the same inode and one must
have been created before the other), then deleting the second has no
effect on the first. Remember that links (so-called "hard" links) are just
directory entries. The file contents are attached to an inode. All the
blocks referenced by an inode are added to the free list once the
reference count drops to zero. In other words, the "file" is only deleted
when the last directory entry to it is deleted.

Charlie Brady                         [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Lead Product Developer
Network Server Solutions Group        http://www.e-smith.com/
Mitel Networks Corporation            http://www.mitel.com/
Phone: +1 (613) 368 4376 or 564 8000  Fax: +1 (613) 564 7739



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