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[pj at pjb.com.au]

> > I believe ln makes hard links by default.
> > > Would either style work in this setup?
> > I don't see why not, but I could be wrong.
> Technically, symlinks can cross filesystem boundaries, whereas
> hard links cannot.  Beyond that, for this particular situation
> I think they're pretty much equivalent.

Yup, you'll only notice the difference when you delete one of
the files; with symlinks, if you happen to delete the original
file (e.g. "quiet") then all its symlinks are left pointing
at nothing :-(  So in this example, as someone might easily
decide to delete the file quiet because it doesn't wrap anything,
hard links might be a safer choice; but the stakes aren't high.

A symlink can link to a directory, whereas hard links can't.
Overall, symlinks are more common.  Hard links date from the very
beginning of unix, whereas symlinks were introduced a few years
later; that's the only reason why ln makes hard links by default.

Peter

http://www.pjb.com.au       pj at pjb.com.au      (03) 6278 9410
"Was der Meister nicht kann,   vermöcht es der Knabe, hätt er
 ihm immer gehorcht?"   Siegfried to Mime, from Act 1 Scene 2