[svlug] Re: hard links v. soft links

[Erik Steffl]

Amy Abascal wrote:
> 
> Let me rephrase that...
> 
> A hard link is another pointer to the same spot on the disk.  It isn't
> saving space at all.  It just means that if you delete one inode, the

  it saves space compared to having actual separate file instead of
link. when you have gzip and gunzip files (both are the same) you're
using twice as much space as if you have either hard link or soft link
gunzip -> gzip (as has been said, softlink uses slightly more space than
hardlink, since hardlink points to inode, whereas softlink has its own
inode).

  in other words, it saves spaces when compared to copying file:

  instead of

copy myfile anotherfile

  do one of

ln -s myfile anotherfile
ln myfile anotherfile

  -s means symbolic link and is generally preferred.

  (of course sometime you actually want to make copy, e.g. if you want
to change one of them etc...)

	erik

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