Newsgroups:  gmane.linux.debian.user
Date:        Fri, 4 Mar 2005 00:03:38 +0000 (UTC)

>My understanding is that hard-links are not reliable. If I modify any of
>the hard links, most probably, the linkage would be broken. Is that so?

That's not because of the hard link, that's because of the application that you are using to modify the file.

If an editor creates a temporary copy of a file to work on, then when you save the file simply moves/renames the temporary file over the existing file, in the case of a hardlink, the link is broken.

Some of the editors can be told to "rewrite the file in-place" instead. That will keep the link.

Miquel van Smoorenburg @ nl