From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S1764979AbXGQLny (ORCPT ); Tue, 17 Jul 2007 07:43:54 -0400 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S1756811AbXGQLnr (ORCPT ); Tue, 17 Jul 2007 07:43:47 -0400 Received: from hoboe2bl1.telenet-ops.be ([195.130.137.73]:52832 "EHLO hoboe2bl1.telenet-ops.be" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1756503AbXGQLnq (ORCPT ); Tue, 17 Jul 2007 07:43:46 -0400 Date: Tue, 17 Jul 2007 13:43:43 +0200 (CEST) From: Geert Uytterhoeven To: Al Boldi Cc: linux-fsdevel@vger.kernel.org, linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Subject: Re: Hardlink Pitfalls (was: Patches for REALLY TINY 386 kernels) In-Reply-To: <200707161722.53203.a1426z@gawab.com> Message-ID: References: <200707161722.53203.a1426z@gawab.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org On Mon, 16 Jul 2007, 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. > > Moral of the story: try to avoid hardlinks as much as possible! Or use a different user account. I used to have `all' Linux kernel source trees hardlinked where possible, as special user `src'. So I could create a `cp -rl' copy under my own account and get an error when trying to modify a file. Gr{oetje,eeting}s, Geert -- Geert Uytterhoeven -- There's lots of Linux beyond ia32 -- geert@linux-m68k.org In personal conversations with technical people, I call myself a hacker. But when I'm talking to journalists I just say "programmer" or something like that. -- Linus Torvalds