Hi,
So I've got a question about Hard Links - if I create a hard link to a file and then delete the file, I know that the hard link still works as it is actually to the inode and not the "file". However, once I delete that hard link, how can I be sure that the inode has been freed up and that the file is not sitting in some now reserved space on the filesystem? Looking at space usage, the capacity did not change when I deleted the second hard link, though there should have been no hard links to that file and therefore it should have been considered deleted.
Also, is there any functional difference between moving a file and creating a hard link then "deleting" the original file?
So I've got a question about Hard Links - if I create a hard link to a file and then delete the file, I know that the hard link still works as it is actually to the inode and not the "file". However, once I delete that hard link, how can I be sure that the inode has been freed up and that the file is not sitting in some now reserved space on the filesystem? Looking at space usage, the capacity did not change when I deleted the second hard link, though there should have been no hard links to that file and therefore it should have been considered deleted.
Also, is there any functional difference between moving a file and creating a hard link then "deleting" the original file?