Timeline for What is the difference between a hard link and a file?
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
8 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Feb 22, 2017 at 18:20 | comment | added | Barmar | Saying that a file has an inode is somewhat backwards. The inode is the structure that contains the information about where the "blob of data" is. If there's no inode, there's no file. | |
| Feb 22, 2017 at 17:28 | comment | added | Kelvin | The word "have" in the phrase "A hard link doesn't have an inode number" is possibly misleading, because then you say that "The hardlink associates a name with an inode number". The "hardlink" directory entry's data-structure actually contains the inode # - this is how the link is "associated" with the inode #. By "doesn't have" I think you mean the hardlink doesn't have an inode # that indicates where the link is stored on disk. | |
| Feb 22, 2017 at 12:33 | comment | added | IMSoP | @kubanczyk Indeed - to people who worked in pre-digital offices, I guess the metaphors seem so obvious that it feels almost condescending to explain them. But to those of my generation and below, it's as obscure as why the storage area at the back of a car is called a "boot" or "trunk", so you have to really spell it out. | |
| Feb 22, 2017 at 12:11 | comment | added | kubanczyk | @IMSoP It's a generation gap. Before computers, a phone book was one of the kinds of a directory. Cambridge dictionary says: "directory: a book that gives a list of names, addresses, or other facts [...example] Look up their number in the telephone directory." | |
| Feb 21, 2017 at 15:00 | vote | accept | Levent Divilioglu | ||
| Feb 21, 2017 at 13:08 | comment | added | IMSoP | I'd never really understood (or properly thought about) what metaphor was behind the word "directory". The phone book example is a great one; perhaps you should introduce it earlier (when you first mention the real world). Similarly, most people rarely deal with "files" outside of a computer, so perhaps it would be clearer to say "just like paper files, and a directory like a phone book". | |
| Feb 21, 2017 at 10:30 | history | edited | Jörg W Mittag | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
added 1036 characters in body
|
| Feb 21, 2017 at 10:24 | history | answered | Jörg W Mittag | CC BY-SA 3.0 |