Subject: Re: Hard links -> symlink
To: Greg Hudson <ghudson@mit.edu>
From: Ted Lemon <mellon@fugue.com>
List: tech-userlevel
Date: 12/17/1995 13:20:52
> NetBSD uses hard links between directories, e.g. between
> /usr/sbin/sendmail and /usr/bin/mailq.  This is wrong for two reasons:
> 	* The two directories might be on different filesystems.
> 	* AFS doesn't allow hard links between directories.

I guess I would say ``this doesn't work for me for two reasons,'' not
``this is wrong for two reasons.''   I don't care about AFS, and I
don't spread my installs across multiple disks because that would be
impossible to maintain, so I would never see the problems you're
describing, but I would see the performance hit from using symlinks on
frequently-accessed files.   This isn't likely to be a problem with
sendmail, but what else is currently being linked?

I'm not saying you shouldn't do this, but I don't think it's as
clear-cut as you've represented it to be, and in fact if it were my
decision, I would _not_ do it.   If you really want to avoid trouble
with links, you shouldn't use them at all, IMHO - just install two
copies of the file.

			       _MelloN_