Timeline for What is the difference between symbolic and hard links?
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
6 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| S Dec 11, 2011 at 17:09 | history | post merged (destination) | |||
| Dec 11, 2011 at 16:30 | comment | added | bsd | practical use-case for hard links. At present on my filesystem I found a large number of hardlinks in /usr/share/zoneinfo Think of all the named files representing timezones, which are all identical to EST. We save filesystem space by not having redundant copies and allow for easier package management without having the management overhead of symlinks install/delete as packages are installed/deleted. Even if one is removed the original data is preserved. Sorry I didn't have time for a more pedantic explanation. | |
| Dec 11, 2011 at 16:16 | comment | added | bsd | One use, same as a "short cut" Another use, having multiple versions of an application on a system allows one to install, test new version, specifying app by full path, while symlink in bin points to production. After testing is complete change symlink to new version, leave old version in place for any users that have version dependent code. Think of perl, python, etc. | |
| Dec 11, 2011 at 15:10 | comment | added | ewwhite | But what's a practical use-case for this? | |
| Dec 11, 2011 at 14:30 | vote | accept | LatinUnit | ||
| S Dec 11, 2011 at 17:09 | |||||
| Dec 11, 2011 at 14:19 | history | answered | bsd | CC BY-SA 3.0 |