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From: UH2@psuvm.psu.edu (Lee Sailer)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: links (was "It's in there...")
Message-ID: <90127.144001UH2@psuvm.psu.edu>
Date: 7 May 90 18:40:01 GMT
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Thanks to everyone who responded to my question about the difference
between hard and soft links.  As one guy said, I got 50 replies, so I
ran out of gas trying to thank every one.

In summary:

Think of a hard link as a pointer from a name to a file.  In the current
AmigaDos, a file can only have one name.  In a system that allows multiple
hard links, a file may have more than one name (or even be in a different
directory, etc).

A soft link also allows a file to have more than one name, but it accomplishes
this by pointing to the files original, or hard name, rather than directly
to the file itself.

(yes, i know this is a rough description and probably riddled with half truth)

One important difference is that if you delete a file with multiple hard
links, the remaining hard links still function properly.  That is, the
file is not deleted til the last hard link is.  If you delete a file with soft
links, the soft links then point to a file which no longer exists.

On the other hand, soft links can cross device boundaries.

Gee.  Isn't education great?

lee