[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
ln = unix command for link. Basically I made a second directory entry
to point to the same cunk of data (until one or the other is
modified, then they become two completely separate files...)
Um, not in Linux.
A plain "ln" will create a hard-link - that is, two labels that point to
the same inode. Change one and you've changed them both - unless when
you make the change, you "unlink" (or delete) the original and then
rewrite the file.
Using "ln -s" creates a soft-link, or symlink. This is a file that is a
forward to the real thing. Most programs will treat the link as though
it were the real file. Thus if you "edit" the symlink, you really edit
the real file and if you edit the real file, the symlink will point to
the changed file.
So except for the situation where a file is unlinked before being
re-written, modifying one or the other side of a link will alter both.
-- Philip, Linux junkie
