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Top Forums UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers Deleting Symbolic and/or Hard links Post 302408598 by cue on Tuesday 30th of March 2010 03:50:39 AM
Old 03-30-2010
Deleting Symbolic and/or Hard links

From what I understand a symbolic link is alot like a shortcut where it points to another file. if the original file is deleted the symbolic link is rendered useless but a symbolic link can be deleted without any problem.

A hard link is like a copy of the file itself but pointing to the same data on the HDD. if the original file is deleted the hardlink will still work and behave just like the original file. If the hardlink is deleted the original remains and works as normal.

is this correct? if so, why do people say hardlinks are dangerous?
The reason I ask is because I need to delete some incremental backup files from a samba share and I'm a little scared of causing data loss by deleting things I shouldn't.
 

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hardlink(1)						      General Commands Manual						       hardlink(1)

NAME
hardlink - Link multiple copies of a file SYNOPSIS
hardlink [option]... [directory|file]... DESCRIPTION
hardlink is a tool which replaces copies of a file with hardlinks, therefore saving space. OPTIONS
-h or --help print quick usage details to the screen. -v or --verbose More verbose output. If specified once, every hardlinked file is displayed, if specified twice, it also shows every comparison. -n or --dry-run Do not act, just print what would happen -f or --respect-name Only try to link files with the same (basename). -p or --ignore-mode Link/compare files even if their mode is different. This may be a bit unpredictable. -o or --ignore-owner Link/compare files even if their owner (user and group) is different. It is not predictable -t or --ignore-time Link/compare files even if their time of modification is different. This will retain the newest timestamp, unless -m or -M is given. -m or --maximize Try to maximize the link count of the files. -M or --minimize Try to minimize the link count of the files. -x or --exclude A regular expression which excludes files from being compared and linked. -i or --include A regular expression to include files. If the option --exclude has been given, this option re-includes files which would otherwise be excluded. If the option is used without --exclude, only files matched by the pattern are included. ARGUMENTS
hardlink takes one or more directories which will be searched for files to be linked. BUGS
hardlink assumes that the trees it operates on do not change during operation. If a tree does change, the result is undefined and poten- tially dangerous. For example, if a regular file is replaced by a device, hardlink may start reading from the device. If a component of a path is replaced by a symbolic link or file permissions change, security may be compromised. Do not run hardlink on a changing tree or on a tree controlled by another user. AUTHOR
The program hardlink and this manpage have been written by Julian Andres Klode, and are licensed under the MIT license. See the code of hardlink for further information. 0.2.0 2012-02-28 hardlink(1)
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