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https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/HDFS-3370?page=com.atlassian.jira.plugin.system.issuetabpanels:comment-tabpanel&focusedCommentId=13406011#comment-13406011
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Andy Isaacson commented on HDFS-3370:
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{quote}
you keep the data along with the file (including the current file owner), you
could do it all from a library.
{quote}
The fundamental problem with "do it in a client library" is, there are always
clients who do not or cannot use the library. Then the symlinks don't work for
those clients. I think it's pretty clear that "open(2) transparently folows
symlinks unless you ask it not to" is a superior developer experience to "open
the file, is it a .LNK? then follow the link else return". Even if there's a
helper implementing the latter.
> HDFS hardlink
> -------------
>
> Key: HDFS-3370
> URL: https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/HDFS-3370
> Project: Hadoop HDFS
> Issue Type: New Feature
> Reporter: Hairong Kuang
> Assignee: Liyin Tang
> Attachments: HDFS-HardLink.pdf
>
>
> We'd like to add a new feature hardlink to HDFS that allows harlinked files
> to share data without copying. Currently we will support hardlinking only
> closed files, but it could be extended to unclosed files as well.
> Among many potential use cases of the feature, the following two are
> primarily used in facebook:
> 1. This provides a lightweight way for applications like hbase to create a
> snapshot;
> 2. This also allows an application like Hive to move a table to a different
> directory without breaking current running hive queries.
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