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From: doug@xdos.UUCP (Doug Merritt)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.tech
Subject: Re: yet another 1.4 request
Summary: forgot to mention analogy with GC
Message-ID: <399@xdos.UUCP>
Date: 30 Jun 89 18:13:06 GMT
References: <8906300342.AA12274@postgres.Berkeley.EDU> <398@xdos.UUCP>
Reply-To: doug@xdos.UUCP (Doug Merritt)
Organization: Hunter Systems, Mountain View CA (Silicon Valley)
Lines: 16

I said:
>With hard links, you can link to someone else's file, and they can delete
>it when they're done with it without worry, because you can do the same
>independently.

I neglected to explain more fully. The fact that hard links reference-
count the file and delete it when there are no more hard links left
can be handy for the same reasons that automatic garbage collection
of unused data structures is handy in languages.

As in languages, GC of files can save tedious and error prone manual
housekeeping.
	Doug
-- 
Doug Merritt		{pyramid,apple}!xdos!doug
Member, Crusaders for a Better Tomorrow		Professional Wildeyed Visionary