[SOLVED] Hard Link Directory

podollb · 01-27-2012, 05:42 PM

I know you can't (at least from what I've read) hard link a directory, but I'm wondering what other options I have to accomplish this:

I want to copy a directory, for example, /foo/bar.0/ to /foo/zoo/ but assume the copy takes 24 hours. And during the copy /foo/bar.0/ is renamed to /foo/bar.1/

How can I do this? Is it even possible?

The first thing I thought of was a hard link to the directory, but like I said that didn't seem possible.

eSelix · 01-27-2012, 06:17 PM

It depends on filesystem, but ext4 does not support hard link to directory. You can use bind mount if you do not need to make a real copy:

Code:

mount --bind /foo/bar.0 /foo/zoo

And of course you can use symbolic link.

pyroscope · 01-27-2012, 06:38 PM

You can also use "cp -rl" which is something inbetween (namely, hardlinks for all the files in the tree), and quite fast, thus there is much less danger of race conditions.

podollb · 01-27-2012, 10:29 PM

Thanks! Actually that "mount --bind" idea might be perfect. I really don't need another copy of the directory contents, I just need to keep a "pointer" to the directory that I'm acting on (even though it may be renamed by another process).

deep27ak · 01-30-2012, 07:08 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by podollb

I know you can't (at least from what I've read) hard link a directory, but I'm wondering what other options I have to accomplish this:

Not possible, you can add one vote from my side

Quote:

Originally Posted by podollb

I want to copy a directory, for example, /foo/bar.0/ to /foo/zoo/ but assume the copy takes 24 hours. And during the copy /foo/bar.0/ is renamed to /foo/bar.1/

What on earth does that means?
You were copying something while copy was under process you changed the name of the directory bar.0 to bar.1?

or you want to rename it?

If you can clear me this thing I might look forward to give a stress on your problem.

podollb · 01-30-2012, 08:29 AM

This thread was already answered. In my last post I also gave a bit more explanation.