NFS mounting a directory of symbolic links to other directories

[gaf-mNDKBlG2WHs at public.gmane.org (Jerry Feldman)]

On 02/26/2009 10:22 AM, Derek Atkins wrote:
> Umm.. as far as NFS is concerned a hardlink of a file is the same
> as a copy of the file.  The way a hardlink works is that it adds
> a second directory entry to the same file inode (which is why it
> cannot cross a filesystem boundary -- the inode is unique to the
> filesystem).  This means you have access to the underlying file
> contents from two places in the filesystem (i.e. the link count).
>
> A symlink, however, is a higher-level mapping which requires going
> through the (local) filesystem to find the target inode.  So if
> you want to limit which files are available then hardlinks are better.
>
>  =20
First a symbolic link is nothing more than a file containing a path. If=20
that path is valid the link works, if it is not, it doesn't. So, if on a =

remote system, the target is mounted at a different point the link will=20
not be valid.

WRT: Hard links, you are correct, because you are dealing with an actual =

file, so you are exporting that file. essentially, the name of every=20
file is a hard link. So, on the target system, if you mount only the=20
directory containing the hard link, it will still work fine.

--
Jerry Feldman <gaf-mNDKBlG2WHs at public.gmane.org>

Boston Linux and Unix
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