Symbolic link to an empty file shows size 2


 
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# 1  
Old 03-11-2011
Symbolic link to an empty file shows size 2

Hi,

I have created an empty file and a symbolic link to a file. But when I issue the following commands, I am getting the output 2.

Code:
stat -c "%s"  linkfile
du -hb linkfile

Why this is happening?
# 2  
Old 03-11-2011
Because the symbolic link is a file that contains the name of the file it points to. Is the name of the empty file by any chance 2 bytes long?

Regards,
Alister
# 3  
Old 03-11-2011
Quote:
Originally Posted by alister
Because the symbolic link is a file that contains the name of the file it points to. Is the name of the empty file by any chance 2 bytes long?

Regards,
Alister
The size of the empty (original) file shows 0 always. But do you mean, since the symbolic link holds the name of the target empty file, it has the size 2?? If so, then the minimum size of any symbolic link file is always 2 not 0, even though it points to an empty file, right? Note, I am using Ubuntu 8.04 (32 bit machine)
# 4  
Old 03-11-2011
No, not always 2 bytes, but always the length of the path it's pointing to. If you create a (symbolic) link to a file in the current directory called 'a', the "size" of the (symbolic) link will be 1. If the name is 'abcde', the size will be 5. And the link to the file /usr/share/doc/installation-report/install-report.template will have a size of 58.
# 5  
Old 03-15-2011
Quote:
Originally Posted by pludi
No, not always 2 bytes, but always the length of the path it's pointing to. If you create a (symbolic) link to a file in the current directory called 'a', the "size" of the (symbolic) link will be 1. If the name is 'abcde', the size will be 5. And the link to the file /usr/share/doc/installation-report/install-report.template will have a size of 58.
Yea, correct. Thanks a ton for clarification !! Smilie
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