embiggen links

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Malin Freeborn 2024-08-07 18:03:14 +02:00
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commit d4c4463f70
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3 changed files with 114 additions and 14 deletions

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basics/hard_links.md Normal file
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---
title: "hard links"
tags: [ "basics", "links" ]
---
A hard link is one file which exists in multiple locations.
Each file has an ID, which is kept on the hard disk's partition.
Each hard link has the same ID, because they are the same file.
This ID is called the 'inode'.
Create a file, and a hard link:
```bash
fortune > $file_1
mkdir -p x/y/z/
ln $file_1 x/y/z/$file_2
```
Have a long look at the file with the `-l` flag, and check the inode with `-i`:
```bash
ls -li $file_1 x/y/z/$file_2
```
Since they are the same file, you can make a change to one, and it changes both:
```bash
fortune | tee x/y/z/$file_2
cat $file_1
cat x/y/z/$file_2
```
# Danger Zone
- hard links will not work on directories, only standard files and fifos.
- `git` will destroy and remake files, so it will not respect hard links.
- Files cannot have a hard link on another disk partition, because the inode is stored on each partition.

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---
title: "links"
tags: [ "Documentation", "Basics" ]
tags: [ "basics", "links" ]
---
Link from X to Y.
```bash
ln -s X ../otherdir/Y
```
If you want a hard link, this will make a single file exist in two locations.
If it is deleted in one location, it continues to exist in the other.
```bash
ln *X* *Y*
```
Both files must be on the same hard drive, as they have the same inode (check this with `ls -i file`).
There are two types:
- [Soft links](soft_links.md)
- [Hard links](hard_links.md)

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---
title: "soft links"
tags: [ "basics", "links" ]
---
A soft link is a file which says how to go to another file.
When a program encounters a soft link, it will make a guess at whether it should ignore it, or try to get to that file.
To make a soft link to a file in the current directory, linking is easy:
```bash
fortune > $file_1
ln -s $file_1 $link_1
```
Now imagine your directory looks like this:
```
dir_0/
├── dir_1
│   └── file_1
├── dir_2
│   └── file_1
├── file_1
└── link_1
```
Inside `dir_1`, making a soft link to `dir_0/file_1` would mean putting the directions to that file:
```bash
cd dir_1
ln -s ../file_1 link_1
```
The real content of the file is just '`../file_1`, so making it from another directory would mean writing exactly the same address to that file:
```bash
ln -s ../file_1 dir_2/link_2
```
Both symlinks are identical, except for the name.
```
dir_0/
├── dir_1
│   ├── file_1
│   └── link_1 <-- This one points to ../file_1
├── dir_2
│   ├── file_1
│   └── link_2 <-- This one points to ../file_1 as well.
└── file_2
```
Since it's just an address, you can delete the original file, then make another.
```bash
rm file_1
ls -l dir_1/
fortune > file_1
cat dir_2/link_2
fortune | tee -a file_1
cat dir_1/link_1
```
Last, let's make a link from `dir_2/link_2` to `dir_1/file_1` (this will delete the old link):
```bash
ln -s -f ../dir_1/file_1 dir_2/link_2
cat dir_2/link_2
```