Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!apple!farrier
From: farrier@Apple.COM (Cary Farrier)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple
Subject: Re: Matt D. / MAC FST
Message-ID: <38482@apple.Apple.COM>
Date: 9 Feb 90 07:31:16 GMT
References: <2463@ttardis.UUCP>
Organization: Apple Computer Inc, Cupertino, CA
Lines: 43

In article <2463@ttardis.UUCP> rlw@ttardis.UUCP (Ron Wilson) writes:
>A symbolic link is a directory entry that either:
>	a) contains the path name of the target file
>or	b) points to a file with one data block, which, in turn, contains
>		the pathname of the target file
>
>Method b could easily be implemented on ProDOS and GS/OS.  Method a would
>require larger entries in directories (or better yet, variable length entries -
>could also allow longer file names to be used).  For ProDOS and GS/OS, method b
>is propably the best way to implement symbolic links.
>
>(To the GS/OS and ProDOS development teems: How about doing this? (symbolic
>links))
>
>Unix file systems also have what are called "hard links" - these are the
>"normal" Unix directory entries - ie: the directory entry contains the inode
>number of the file.  This is something that would require an Unix FST to do
>on GS/OS.

Option A would require application level knowledge of the soft links.  Not a
very nice way to do things, especially since none of the exisiting applications
would work with it.  I don't see why A would require longer names, or
even variable length names.

Option B would require an FST to implement this, and is not as easy as you
might think.

The thing that really makes soft links useable is that under UNIX you
don't swap disks at your leisure.  Under GS/OS, you would have to either
limit soft links to the same volume, or you would end up doing alot of
disk swapping if you don't have a hard drive (or multiple hds).  They
are a nice idea, but IMHO probably not worth the time to implement.

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