4 ms·

Copy-on-write and hard links are different things. A file clone would, though (as in cp --reflink).

• LaputanMachine 5y ago
  So if I understand correctly, copy-on-write is implemented using hard links, but the existence of hard links alone doesn't constitute CoW.
  • andruby 5y ago
    You can also have hard links on non CoW filesystems (eg ext3). I assume hard links exists on most filesystems
    • xorcist 5y ago
      Where there is a filename there is a hard link, so that's true in a trivial sense.
      • andruby 5y ago
        Right, indeed. I guess I was thinking about the functionality of having multiple hard links point to the same “file” (inode)