Greetings,

I have created a hard between two files on the same file system
with the command

ln mysqlaccess.log mysqlaccess

But is there is any to distinguish which is the original file
and which one is the link.

Both `ls -l ` and `stat ` on the two files showing the same content.

$ ls -lH mysqlaccess*

-rw-r--r-- 2 root root 14 Dec 11 19:18 mysqlaccess
-rw-r--r-- 2 root root 14 Dec 11 19:18 mysqlaccess.log

[root@gdrd5 ~]# stat mysqlaccess*
File: `mysqlaccess'
Size: 14 Blocks: 8 IO Block: 4096 regular file
Device: 900h/2304d Inode: 641593 Links: 2
Access: (0644/-rw-r--r--) Uid: ( 0/ root) Gid: ( 0/ root)
Access: 2007-12-11 19:18:41.000000000 +0530
Modify: 2007-12-11 19:18:41.000000000 +0530
Change: 2007-12-11 19:18:41.000000000 +0530
File: `mysqlaccess.log'
Size: 14 Blocks: 8 IO Block: 4096 regular file
Device: 900h/2304d Inode: 641593 Links: 2
Access: (0644/-rw-r--r--) Uid: ( 0/ root) Gid: ( 0/ root)
Access: 2007-12-11 19:18:41.000000000 +0530
Modify: 2007-12-11 19:18:41.000000000 +0530
Change: 2007-12-11 19:18:41.000000000 +0530


With thanks in Advance

regards
zaman

As far as I know, you can't. Hard links share the same data with different names in different locations (on the same disk) but they are truly un-distinguishable... except for their path!

A hard link is simply another name for the same file info. (In your stat results note that the inode #s are the same.) You can create a hard link and then delete the original. The data will still be there as long as it has at least one link (filename).

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

With a soft link, if you delete the original, the data is gone. (The link will still be there, but go nowhere.)