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https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/HADOOP-4044?page=com.atlassian.jira.plugin.system.issuetabpanels:comment-tabpanel&focusedCommentId=12637147#action_12637147
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Doug Cutting commented on HADOOP-4044:
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> I prefer the name symlink instead of link.
Hmm. 'Symbolic link' is the marked case in unix, the exception, where 'link'
alone refers to a hard link. The reason is historic, symbolic links were not
added to unix until 4.2 BSD. The term 'link' was already used to describe hard
links and so had to be qualified, even though symbolic links are now more
commonly used than hard links. In Hadoop I argue we should make hard links the
marked case, and that the default understanding of 'link' in Hadoop, as on the
web, should be like unix's symbolic link. If we ever add support for hard
links, then they would become the marked case in Hadoop, requiring
qualification, like server-side redirects. However I would not veto this if
the majority prefer a longer name here.
> the method next() suggests that one follows the path to the next symbolic
> link. It does not strictly.
Can you elaborate? Each time this is called a link is resolved, returning a
path that may contain more links, following a chain of links, no? Also,
'doOperation()' is next to meaningless. So if 'next' is indeed inappropriate
we should replace it with something more specific, not something generic.
> Create symbolic links in HDFS
> -----------------------------
>
> Key: HADOOP-4044
> URL: https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/HADOOP-4044
> Project: Hadoop Core
> Issue Type: New Feature
> Components: dfs
> Reporter: dhruba borthakur
> Assignee: dhruba borthakur
> Attachments: symLink1.patch, symLink1.patch, symLink4.patch,
> symLink5.patch, symLink6.patch, symLink8.patch, symLink9.patch
>
>
> HDFS should support symbolic links. A symbolic link is a special type of file
> that contains a reference to another file or directory in the form of an
> absolute or relative path and that affects pathname resolution. Programs
> which read or write to files named by a symbolic link will behave as if
> operating directly on the target file. However, archiving utilities can
> handle symbolic links specially and manipulate them directly.
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