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diff --git a/slackbook/html/filesystem-structure-links.html b/slackbook/html/filesystem-structure-links.html new file mode 100644 index 00000000..451270e5 --- /dev/null +++ b/slackbook/html/filesystem-structure-links.html @@ -0,0 +1,105 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"> +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> +<head> +<meta name="generator" content="HTML Tidy, see www.w3.org" /> +<title>Links</title> +<meta name="GENERATOR" content="Modular DocBook HTML Stylesheet Version 1.7" /> +<link rel="HOME" title="Slackware Linux Essentials" href="index.html" /> +<link rel="UP" title="Filesystem Structure" href="filesystem-structure.html" /> +<link rel="PREVIOUS" title="Permissions" href="filesystem-structure-permissions.html" /> +<link rel="NEXT" title="Mounting Devices" href="filesystem-structure-mounting.html" /> +<link rel="STYLESHEET" type="text/css" href="docbook.css" /> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1" /> +</head> +<body class="SECT1" bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000" link="#0000FF" vlink="#840084" +alink="#0000FF"> +<div class="NAVHEADER"> +<table summary="Header navigation table" width="100%" border="0" cellpadding="0" +cellspacing="0"> +<tr> +<th colspan="3" align="center">Slackware Linux Essentials</th> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td width="10%" align="left" valign="bottom"><a +href="filesystem-structure-permissions.html" accesskey="P">Prev</a></td> +<td width="80%" align="center" valign="bottom">Chapter 9 Filesystem Structure</td> +<td width="10%" align="right" valign="bottom"><a +href="filesystem-structure-mounting.html" accesskey="N">Next</a></td> +</tr> +</table> + +<hr align="LEFT" width="100%" /> +</div> + +<div class="SECT1"> +<h1 class="SECT1"><a id="FILESYSTEM-STRUCTURE-LINKS" +name="FILESYSTEM-STRUCTURE-LINKS">9.3 Links</a></h1> + +<p>Links are pointers between files. With links, you can have files exist in many +locations and be accessible by many names. There are two types of links: hard and +soft.</p> + +<p>Hard links are names for a particular file. They can only exist within a single +filesystem and are only removed when the real name is removed from the system. These are +useful in some cases, but many users find the soft link to be more versatile.</p> + +<p>The soft link, also called a symbolic link, can point to a file outside of its +filesystem. It is actually a small file containing the information it needs. You can add +and remove soft links without affecting the actual file. And since a symbolic link is +actually a small file containing its own information, they can even point at a directory. +It's rather common to have <tt class="FILENAME">/var/tmp</tt> actually be a symbolic link +to <tt class="FILENAME">/tmp</tt> for example.</p> + +<p>Links do not have their own set of permissions or ownerships, but instead reflect +those of the file they point to. Slackware uses mostly soft links. Here is a common +example:</p> + +<table border="0" bgcolor="#E0E0E0" width="100%"> +<tr> +<td> +<pre class="SCREEN"> +<samp class="PROMPT">%</samp> <kbd class="USERINPUT">ls -l /bin/sh</kbd> +lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 4 Apr 6 12:34 /bin/sh -> bash +</pre> +</td> +</tr> +</table> + +<p>The <tt class="COMMAND">sh</tt> shell under Slackware is actually <tt +class="COMMAND">bash</tt>. Removing links is done using <tt class="COMMAND">rm</tt>. The +<tt class="COMMAND">ln</tt> command is used to create links. These commands will be +discussed in more depth in <a href="file-commands.html">Chapter 10</a>.</p> + +<p>It's very important to be careful about symlinks in particular. Once, I was working on +a machine that was consistently failing to back-up to tape each night. Two symlinks had +been made to directories beneath each other. The back-up software kept appending those +same directories to the tape until it was out of space. Normally, a set of checks will +prevent creating a symlink in this situation, but ours was a special case.</p> +</div> + +<div class="NAVFOOTER"> +<hr align="LEFT" width="100%" /> +<table summary="Footer navigation table" width="100%" border="0" cellpadding="0" +cellspacing="0"> +<tr> +<td width="33%" align="left" valign="top"><a href="filesystem-structure-permissions.html" +accesskey="P">Prev</a></td> +<td width="34%" align="center" valign="top"><a href="index.html" +accesskey="H">Home</a></td> +<td width="33%" align="right" valign="top"><a href="filesystem-structure-mounting.html" +accesskey="N">Next</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td width="33%" align="left" valign="top">Permissions</td> +<td width="34%" align="center" valign="top"><a href="filesystem-structure.html" +accesskey="U">Up</a></td> +<td width="33%" align="right" valign="top">Mounting Devices</td> +</tr> +</table> +</div> +</body> +</html> + |