Talk:Hard link

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This article is really pedantic. Instead of "a reference, or pointer, to physical data on a storage volume", why not just say "a reference to a file"? Why not say "file" or "file inode" instead of "physical data section"? It should say that you can't create (additional) hard links to directories. Are there any systems where that is not the case? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by PGibbons (talk • contribs).

[edit] Drawbacks

How is it a drawback that hard links can only be created whithin a single partition? It is a drawback as much as not writing red is a drawback of a blue pen. If partition 1 holds physically data A, to which filename A (in partition 1) points, and partition 2 contains filename B, which is a hard link to data A... how would be mounting and unmounting of partition 2 be handled? Data A is defined as deleted when all hard links to it are removed. If filename A is removed, and B is not, but partition 2 is unmounted... what happens to data A? Is is accesible again when partition 2 is mounted? And if partition 1 is unmounted, but partition 2 is not... would filename B be a dangling link, as if it where a symlink? And if another partition is mounted in the mountpoint partition 1 had? Now the link would have to "remember" physical partitions, not filesystems (as the soft link does)... bizarre and silly. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Isilanes (talk • contribs).

While it might seem blatently obvious to those that understand computers particularly well enough to get by on their own, it may not seem so for those which aren't. Suppose you never saw a pen before, if you were to see someone writing in red instead of blue, you might wonder why you can't write in red as well. --Mike 04:29, 2 December 2006 (UTC)