Re: OK for apps to break hard links?

FROM : Troy Goodson
DATE : Mon Nov 18 11:44:01 2002

On Monday, November 18, 2002, at 09:12  AM, Bob Ippolito wrote:

> On Monday, Nov 18, 2002, at 11:59 America/New_York, Troy Goodson wrote:
>

>> Has anyone else noticed that applications like Apple's TextEdit break
>> hard links in HFS+ and UFS?
>>
>> As a newbie to OS X development, I'd like to ask this list for some
>> guidance.  Should this be OK or not?
>>
>> If it is not OK, then I'd appreciate it if someone could explain to
>> me what TextEdit is doing wrong and show me the right way.

>
> I think the way that apple stuff writes new files is something like:
> (a) write temp file
> (b) move old file out of the way
> (c) move temp file to old place
> (d) trash old file
>
> Which would certainly break any hard links..  but it's pretty much
> guaranteed not to trash your file
>
> -bob


I see.  So there's a trade-off here.  And, I guess Finder aliases
-don't- get broken.  So, when presented with this case, should the
application warn the user that a hard link (or soft link) is about to
be broken?  And, should it present the user with an option that will
save the file, but preserve the link?