lol. hey I learned something new as well. I did not know they were around since the 70s. Ok. I did not know operating system were around in the 70s. but yeah they work well and I have a few in my dropbox folders so even though my folder might be 20mb in size I have over 100 gigs of stuff up there. thanks to those sym links. the command might be different under windows but the theory is still the same. I hope.
You can even map your dropbox to a fake drive like for example x you would do subst X: "C:\users/username/my documents/dropbox" and then type X:/ in the run dialogue of cd C:\ then hit enter then the ln command I gave, if that cmd even works in windows. Good luck. On Sep 9, 2012, at 5:11 AM, Martin G. McCormick <[email protected]> wrote: > What she is talking about is a misspelled form of the > expression "symlink" which is short for "symbolic link." > > I will briefly quote wikipedia after having entered > "symbolic link" from Google: > > Symbolic link > > From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia > > In computing, a symbolic link (also symlink or soft 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.^[1] Symbolic links were already present by 1978 in > mini-computer operating systems from DEC and Data General's RDOS. Today > they are supported by the POSIX operating-system standard, most > Unix-like operating systems such as FreeBSD, GNU/Linux, and Mac OS X, > and also Windows operating systems such as Windows Vista, Windows 7 and > to some degree in Windows 2000 and Windows XP in the form of Shortcut > files. > > End of quote > > Your Mac's are loaded with them. > > You are free to use symlinks anywhere you might use a > regular file as long as you understand what they are. > > Here is a common example. On your Mac, you have > AppleFileServer. It is normally found in /usr/sbin. Since Apple > may choose to update this file during upgrades or security bug > fixes, and they sure want to keep straight which version they > are dealing with, the actual file on the disk may have a longer > name or a totally different name all together. > > I invoked the terminal on a mac and found some links, > one of which I will list for you as a demonstration. You can do > the same on your Mac's from the terminal window: > > Sun Sep 9 06:31:20 2012 > bash-3.2$ ls -l /usr/sbin/AppleFileServer > lrwxr-xr-x 1 root wheel 79 Nov 19 2010 /usr/sbin/AppleFileServer -> > /System/Library/CoreServices/AppleFileServer.app/Contents/MacOS/AppleFileServer > > In that case, the file has the same name as the link, > but it is located in a rather long path. Tomorrow, Apple might > decide you need a new AppleFileServer and decide it should go in > a different location on your system. This could break lots of > stuff which would then need to be fixed but, instead, Apple just > re-makes the symlink and points it to the new location and > nobody is the wiser. All the software knows that AppleFileServer > is in /usr/sbin and that's all they need to be aware of. > > I have a special file at work containing information > everybody needs to know in my group and everybody has a symlink > in their home directory pointing to this file. If I change that > one file, it's changed for everybody without having to update 15 > or 20 separate files. > > Getting back to something Sarah mentioned, a symlink is > not a copy but more like a nick name. If you trash the actual > file contents, every symlink now points to rubbish, also. If you > have permission to write to a symlink, you also are writing to > the original file because symlinks are nothing more than > alternative locations and names for one and only one version of > a file. > > If you delete the file that symlinks point to, the > symlinks are still there and you will think you can use them, > but when you try, you will get the error of "file not found" or > something similar. > > Anyway, I hope I didn't confuse things even more, but > symlinks are powerful but you must use them with care. > > You can delete a symlink without deleting the original > file so, in that one case, they can protect the actual contents > of a valuable file. > "Mrs. Lynnette Annabel Smith" writes: >> Sarah >> >> You didn't answer his question I'm afraid. Let me try to make it a little >> easier. >> >> 1. What is SimLink? >> >> 2. From where can one obtain SimLink? >> >> I don't really understand the instructions either, to be honest. Could >> you, or somebody, clarify? >> >> Thank you. >> >> Lynne > > ======================================= > > The Techno-Chat E-Mail forum is guaranteed malware, spyware, Trojan, virus > and worm-free > > To modify your subscription options, please visit for forum's dedicated web > pages located at > http://mail.tft-bbs.co.uk/mailman/listinfo/techno-chat > > You can find an archive of all messages posted to the Techno-Chat group at > either of the following websites: > > http://mail.tft-bbs.co.uk/pipermail/techno-chat/index.html > > Or: > <http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]> > you may also subscribe to this list via RSS. 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