NFS mounting a directory of symbolic links to other directories

Jerry Feldman gaf-mNDKBlG2WHs at public.gmane.org
Thu Feb 26 14:48:52 EST 2009


On 02/26/2009 01:34 PM, Abreau John wrote:
>  =20
>> First a symbolic link is nothing more than a file containing=20
>> a path. If that path is valid the link works, if it is not, it doesn't=
=2E=20
>> So, if on a remote system, the target is mounted at a different=20
>> point the link will not be valid.
>>    =20
>
>
> A symlink stores that path within the inode; it doesn't use any data bl=
ocks.=20
>
>  =20
Both is true. It will be stored in the inode if it's size is within a=20
certain range, otherwise it will be stored as a file. It used to be=20
stored as a file, but now nearly every inode is stored in the inode=20
structure. It is also dependent on the filesystem. Ext2 is different=20
from reiserFS. The important thing is the behavior whether the symbolic=20
link is the old way (as a file) or the newer way in the inode itself.

The behavior is that the path is stored, and this allows for crossing=20
the file system boundaries where a hard link is essentially a pointer to =

the inode element.

--=20
Jerry Feldman <gaf-mNDKBlG2WHs at public.gmane.org>
Boston Linux and Unix
PGP key id: 537C5846
PGP Key fingerprint: 3D1B 8377 A3C0 A5F2 ECBB  CA3B 4607 4319 537C 5846







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