On Feb 11, 2008 11:49 AM, Ralph Shumaker <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > James G. Sack (jim) wrote: > > Of course, if the target and link are (files only, not dirs) on the same > > filesystem, you can just use a hardlink. Maybe that's more like what you > > want? > > I don't know. What is the difference between a hard link and a soft one?
A soft link (ln -s <source> <target>) is merely a pointer to a location in the filesystem. If the original file gets moved to another location, the link is broken. In contrast, a hard link (ln <source> <target>) is a pointer to a physical location on the hard disk. This allows multiple "files" to all point to exactly the same data on the disk. Any one of those files can be moved around wherever you want it, but they all still point to the original data. The data itself is not overwritten until the last hard link is removed. Also, hard links can only be created within the same partition as the source data. -- Brad Beyenhof http://augmentedfourth.com I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use. ~ Galileo Galilei, astronomer and physicist (1564-1642) -- [email protected] http://www.kernel-panic.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/kplug-newbie
