Jeffrey J. Kosowsky wrote:
> The kludge is not the use per-se of hard links
> to store the file data but the resulting collapsing of multiple
> version of the same file to a single inode that correspond to
> different inodes and file attributes in the source data. 

You do not have a clear understanding of how hard links work.  Hard 
links don't store data; they represent a name that points to a single 
inode.  All files have at least one hard link (their original name). 
When you add an additional hard link, it points to the same inode as the 
original filename.

Hard links were designed for this specific purpose (multiple names 
pointing to the same file without the file data being replicated as 
well) and their use is not a kludge -- in fact, BackupPC uses them 
exactly for their intended purpose.

For pooling identical files, this kind of thing could be either 
maintained in the application itself (what you are proposing) or by the 
filesystem (what BackupPC actually does).  Each has tradeoffs, but doing 
it via the filesystem is hardly "wrong" or a kludge.
-- 
Jim Leonard (trixter AT oldskool DOT org)            http://www.oldskool.org/
Help our electronic games project:           http://www.mobygames.com/
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A child borne of the home computer wars: http://trixter.wordpress.com/


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