Re: Hard links to directories
On Sun, 4 Sep 2005 15:40:58 +0100 (BST), Max <max@mcs.st-and.ac.uk> said:
> Dear All, Is there a way of switching on permission to have hard links
> to directories?
> Is there a rationale for disallowing this?
The Linux kernel VFS does not allow directory hard links for technical
reasons. (i.e. they don't know how to implement it without potentially
breaking things or killing performance.)
> What I'm trying to do is to set up my file system so that, rather as
> with apt-get, files and entire directories survive only as long as
> they are wanted. Wanted can be cheaply and easily implemented as a
> hard link for files, but my attempts to make hard directory links
> throw up a message saying that this isn't allowed.
> Is the no hard links to directories policy a function of the file
> system or of the OS? At the moment I'm using Reiserfs - not sure
> which version as the installer didn't say but I'd guess v3. I am
> under the impression that v1&2 were experimental only and that 4
> hasn't been out long. Please don't quote me on that and do correct me
> if I'm wrong!
If it says Reiserfs, it is almost definitely v3. v4 is usually referred
to as "Reiser4", and is only available with a custom patched kernel (or
via the -mm branch).
--
Hubert Chan <hubert@uhoreg.ca> - http://www.uhoreg.ca/
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