> > Hard links are pretty useful for sharing large files. When I was in
> > university, I used to make links to large programs compiled by other
> > users - like gdb, irc, etc. In this way it didn't take any additional
> > disk space and if the owner deleted the program later, I still had a
> > copy.
>
> If the owner deleted the program because they ran out of disk quota,
> you made sure that _they_ still owned a copy. You did not have a copy.
>
> I'd say this is a reason to restrict link() to the file owner.
Alright for _quota_ systems, but on non-quota systems this is the ticket
to disk space savings. (Otherwise the users will cp the file n times on
the disk when this is unnecessary.)
-- William Burrow -- Fredericton Area Network, New Brunswick, Canada Copyright 1996 William Burrow Canada's federal regulator says it may regulate content on the Internet to provide for more Canadian content. (Ottawa Citizen 15 Nov 96 D15)