NC Windows client delinks hardlinks

📱 Desktop & mobile clients
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1

HI

I use hard link files on Windows for better usability and access, but NC Windows client keeps delinking these hardlinked files after/during sync. Is there a reason why it does that? Is this by design or a bug?

I know the client wont sync symlinks/junctions which is fine but it would be great if it does the same thing for the hard links instead of destroying the actual link between files.

thanks

2

Could you please explain with more details what exactly happens?As long I understand hardlink is replaced with the target file of the hardlink? What is the reason you have hardlinks inside of your NC directory?

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3

The hard link is dereferenced (which breaks the linking and creates two independent files) by the NC client on Windows.

The reason I use hard linking is that I can have the same file outside of the NC sync folder on the same folder given this is a feature supported by the OS. This way I can be less strict with where files have to be on my drive

4

I could imagine the problem is because the client is designed in a way it must keep the local and server storage in sync. once it checks the hardlink and detects a new file it sends this file to the server and this might cause the file on the server and on the client to look different, why it downloads the file back, breaking the hardlink. I didn’t dig deeper into the problem and definitely it is not a welcome situation from the users point of view but this could happen if you try to overrule the client logic… I would recommend to keep it simple and only put things into client folder you want to sync with the server.

To address your issue you could try to reverse your logic - store the original file in NC directory and create a link in the “alternative” location you want to access the file from.

5

That does not work because both folders are synced in NC. These are separate projects (folders) but couple files are shared across different projects.

6

I don’t think this works but definitely worth to file a bug report at Github to address the biggest drawback (IMHO most of the user will be happier with the current behavior) but it should be documented at least.

relevant discussion - lot or arguments apply to hard links as well:

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