Re: Hard links

From:	Marek Kilimajer	Date:	Sat, 14 Feb 2004 00:53:45 +0000
Subject:	Re: Hard links
References:	1 2	Groups:	php.general
Request:	Send a blank email to php-general+get-177672@lists.php.net to get a copy of this message

BAO RuiXian wrote:

Ryan A wrote:
[snip...] the source and target files are on the same filesystem. My (simple) question is: What is "hard links"? never really heard of it and googles no help either. Am I missing something?
A link is called hard link when its system-file-identifier (SFID) is added to the current directory entry. The opposite is called soft link or symbolic link, when only the path name is added to the direcotry entry.

You can think of hard links as of reference variables in php: $a = 5; $b =& $a; $b would be a "hard link" to $a. In fact they are completely equal, they are both references to the same memory location, if you unset $a, $b is still valid. The same goes with filesystem hardlinks - you can remove the original file (in fact you only "unlink" it) and the other hardlink is still valid.