symbolic linking directories? Possible?

ajspliffs · 01-12-2004, 11:33 AM

I have mounted my big drive to sit at /archives but i want to give ppl access to it if logging on to ftp in the pub directory.

I tried doing the

ln -d /archives /var/ftp/pub

only to come up with the following error: Invalid cross device link

what is the best solution for my problem?

acid_kewpie · 01-12-2004, 11:43 AM

you are trying to create a HARD link. a hard link means that a duplicate entry is added to the file tables, meaning that the same piece of data can be accessed by multiple file names. however your data is on a physically different device, so this naturally makes no sense at all. If you read the ln manpage you'll see you need a SOFT link, which is more analogous to a windows "shortcut", it points to the other filename, rather than the actual data.

ln -s dir1 dir2

MartinN · 01-12-2004, 11:43 AM

You can't do a hard link from one partition to another. A symbolic link (ln -s) may be an option, but I'm not sure that the ftp daemon likes that.

Why don't you just mount it under /var/ftp/pub ?

Regards
Martin

ajspliffs · 01-12-2004, 11:55 AM

ya when i did the symbolic link it works well in console and ssh but in an ftp client it just shows a link file. there for i think i will mount my archives drive in the ftp pub directory and symbolic link it in to /archives

thanks guys.