From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S933348AbXGPQ47 (ORCPT ); Mon, 16 Jul 2007 12:56:59 -0400 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S1762468AbXGPQ4t (ORCPT ); Mon, 16 Jul 2007 12:56:49 -0400 Received: from lazybastard.de ([212.112.238.170]:49562 "EHLO longford.lazybastard.org" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1757985AbXGPQ4s (ORCPT ); Mon, 16 Jul 2007 12:56:48 -0400 Date: Mon, 16 Jul 2007 18:53:12 +0200 From: =?utf-8?B?SsO2cm4=?= Engel To: Satyam Sharma Cc: Al Boldi , linux-fsdevel@vger.kernel.org, linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Subject: Re: Hardlink Pitfalls (was: Patches for REALLY TINY 386 kernels) Message-ID: <20070716165312.GA32647@lazybastard.org> References: <200707161722.53203.a1426z@gawab.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8 Content-Disposition: inline Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit In-Reply-To: User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.9i Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org On Mon, 16 July 2007 22:14:41 +0530, Satyam Sharma wrote: > On 7/16/07, Al Boldi wrote: > >Satyam Sharma wrote: > >> Or just "cp -al" to create multiple trees at (almost) no disk cost > >> that won't interfere with each other in any way, and makes the > >> development process / generating patchsets trifle easier as well ... > > > >That would be correct if hardlinks would actually do a CoW on modify, > >instead > >of misleading the user into thinking he is modifying an independent file. > > "patch" already handles this correctly ... and backupcopy=auto,breakhardlink > in vim (and something similar in other editors I presume) Yet even a single program failing to break the link will leave you with a mess to sort out. The only place that can ensure to always break the link is the kernel. Which is why I wrote the cowlink patches some years back. The still need a lot of love to be merge-ready. But I do use them on a daily basis. Jörn -- Joern's library part 2: http://www.art.net/~hopkins/Don/unix-haters/tirix/embarrassing-memo.html