[Go-essp-tech] [esg-node-dev] Re: Reasoning for the use of symbolic links in drslib
V. Balaji
V.Balaji at noaa.gov
Mon Sep 19 08:36:41 MDT 2011
Estanislao Gonzalez writes:
> I meant that as hard links are really like normal files, the will get
> ingested multiple times when stored into tape. Tools can therefore not rely
> on "detecting" them as they would with soft-links. [I'm told that our tape
> storage cannot store links, so we wouldn't benefit from this advantage of
> soft-links)
I'm not sure this is true as a general statement. The tape software we
use here (pDMF) I'm pretty sure handles hard links correctly, i.e no
double storage. A cursory look at documentation for HPSS suggests
the same there. Please correct me if I'm wrong.
Symlinks (soft) are of course a different story, since they can point
to anything, including non-existent filesystems. Doing 'man rsync' shows
you the rich software palette needed to support symlinks:-), so I'm not
surprised your tape guys stayed away.
--
V. Balaji Office: +1-609-452-6516
Head, Modeling Systems Group, GFDL Home: +1-212-253-6662
Princeton University Email: v.balaji at noaa.gov
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