what is a file system?
 

Hi, i'm quite new to linux so i've begun studying LPI 101.

i came across the following which describes hard links..

"hard links do not span file systems. this means they cannot create a link from /usr/bin/bash to /bin/bash if your / and /usr directories exist on seperate file systems"

i need clarification on the following:

1. under what circumstances will / and /usr directories exist on separate file systems?

2. here is a snapshot of my root directory:

admin@linux-2d4r:/> ls
bin dev home lost+found mnt proc sbin sys usr
boot etc lib media opt root srv tmp var

correct me if i'm wrong, i believe i can create hardlinks from any one of these directories to another?

i.e: ln /home/admin/Desktop/firstlink /tmp/secondlink


thanks in advance!

I'm just supposing here and no doubt others will correct me, but . . . .

It seems to me that your reference is unclear as to what it means by "separate file systems." It could be interpreted to mean either separate partitions (systems of files) or separate file systems (systems for storing and retrieving files, such as ext3 and reiserfs).

RTFM is all well and good as long as the manual is clearly written.

No wonder you have questions.

The only hard links I have ever used are the ones inherent in the system. I've never tried to create my own. I have lots of symlinks.

But I did find this which may be some help, but I still found it kind of muddy:

http://www.askdavetaylor.com/how_do_...inks_work.html

1. I.E.- You decide to customize your installation by creating separate partitions for different directories, and you format / as ext4 and the /usr partition as reiserfs.

2. Yes. They're on the same partition, and therefore, on the same file system as well.

Cheers

I thought that might be what it means, but I was too uncertain to go there.

Thanks.