hard link (find file , which it points to )

[Billa-User]

hello ,

i have a hard link like (ll link_file) :
-rw-r--r-- 3 root:sys 122880 Mar 10 2003 link_file

only in the column after the permissions i can see it is a hard link ?

how can i detect the file ,where hard link "points to ?

regards

[Milan Novak]

hp@mtest:/home/hp/tmp $ ln zz zz1
hp@mtest:/home/hp/tmp $ ln zz zz2
hp@mtest:/home/hp/tmp $ ll -i zz
1639 -rwxrwx---+ 3 hp users 32 Apr 7 15:12 zz
hp@mtest:/home/hp/tmp $ find . -inum 1639 -exec ll -d {} \+
find: cannot open ./x/xx/xx
-rwxrwx---+ 3 hp users 32 Apr 7 15:12 ./zz
-rwxrwx---+ 3 hp users 32 Apr 7 15:12 ./zz1
-rwxrwx---+ 3 hp users 32 Apr 7 15:12 ./zz2

[Steven Schweda · Accepted solution]

> [...] find . -inum [...]

"." may not be the best choice here. Another
linked file could be higher up the directory
tree. Better might be the mount point of the
file system containing "." (or, more
generally, the directory containing the file
of interest). And adding "-xdev" would be
good, too, because you don't want info about
other file systems, which might also use the
same inode number for unrelated files.
("find / [...]" without "-xdev" could find
many inappropriate inode matches.) So:

find -xdev -inum [...]

If there's a snappy way to determine that
mount point, then I don't know what it is.
I'd need to look at the output from "mount",
and figure it out using my brain (or a
non-trivial script). Someone else may be
more clever, though. (Or have broader
experience.)

[Billa-User]

thank's steven for your detail answer. maybe a perl command exists for determine the file of a hard link ? if exists in a filesystem a lot of files , maybe "find command" will run a longer time...

[Earl_Crowder]

If it's a vxfs filesystem, and the disk layout version is 6 or greater, you can use vxlsino.

[Dennis Handly]

>how can I detect the file, where hard link points to?

"ll -i" will show the inode number. First check the current directory.

>maybe a perl command exists for determine the file of a hard link?

I don't think perl will be much faster than find(1). The only thing perl can cleverly do is stop after the "3" links.

>Steven: If there's a snappy way to determine that mount point, then I don't know what it is.

bdf .

[Steven Schweda]

> bdf .

Ah, thanks. That easily qualifies as snappy.
(It also looks at least slightly familiar, so
I may have known it once, upon a time when I
was young (long ago).)

[Hein van den Heuvel]

The 'vxlsino' command, pointed out earlier, seems handy. It was new to me. Thanks!

>> how can i detect the file ,where hard link "points to ?

I believe this to be a question which only applies to softlinks.
This exact question is meaningless for hardlinks.

The way I understand it, hardlinks do not point to files, they are the file. (directory entries with a specific inode).
The moment a hardlink to a file is created, there are two indistinguishable ways to find that file (inode).

Yeah, _you_ might know which came first, but there is no information in the file system reflecting that.

So one can ask how you can detect the other entries that are in fact the same file but is makes no sense to ask which file it points to. IMHO.
The 'original' entry for the inode may long since have been removed.

fwiw,
Hein

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hard_link

# echo "Hi there" > x
# ls -il *
41317 -rw-r--r-- 1 hein root 9 Apr 23 17:36 x
# ln b x
# ln x a
# ls -il *
41317 -rw-r--r-- 3 hein root 9 Apr 23 17:36 a
41317 -rw-r--r-- 3 hein root 9 Apr 23 17:36 b
41317 -rw-r--r-- 3 hein root 9 Apr 23 17:36 x
# find . -inum 41317 -exec ls -l {} \;
-rw-r--r-- 3 hein root 9 Apr 23 17:36 ./a
-rw-r--r-- 3 hein root 9 Apr 23 17:36 ./b
-rw-r--r-- 3 hein root 9 Apr 23 17:36 ./x
# rm x
# ls -il *
41317 -rw-r--r-- 2 hein root 9 Apr 23 17:36 a
41317 -rw-r--r-- 2 hein root 9 Apr 23 17:36 b

# cat a
Hi there
# cat b
Hi there

[James R. Ferguson]

Hi:

>how can I detect the file, where hard link points to?

You can always find the full path from which you came:

# perl -MCwd=realpath -le 'print realpath q(.)'

Regards!

...JRF...

[Dennis Handly]

>JRF: You can always find the full path from which you came:

That's the easy part: pwd -P
Then stick on the filename.

Everyone has been assuming the question was how to find all of the other names for that inode.

[Billa-User]

> bdf .

does a command or function exits like "get filesystem " ?

a combination of "pwd -P" and "bdf ." ?

i think it is better to user "df ." , why?
when i have longer lvol's oder filesystem's, it isn't easy to parse :

df .
/testfs/filesys1 (/dev/vgtestfs1/filesys1): 12205184 blocks 191869 i-nodes

bdf .
Filesystem kbytes used avail %used Mounted on
/dev/vgtestfs1/filesys1
18874368 12734552 6102592 68% /testfs/filesys1

regards

[Billa-User]

hello,

i created a short script (in attachment).
it is a mix of shell and perl.

i use perl to detect :

- nlink number of (hard) links
- inode number

how can i detect the version of filesystem

- i use /sbin/vxupgrade ?

regards

[James R. Ferguson]

Hi (again):

A couple of comments:

If you to see if a directory is a mountpoint, test [stat()]for the directory to have an inode number of <2>. All mountpoints have inode=2.

I suggested using :

# perl -MCwd=realpath -le 'print realpath q(.)'

...to be able to define (at the top level) the mountpoint in which you are looking.

As for detecting the VxFS filesystem version, you can use the device associated with the filesystem in question :

# fstyp -v /dev/vgNN/lvolN

...or you can use 'vxupgrade':

# vxupgrade /mymountpoint

Regards!

...JRF...

[Billa-User]

please correct if i don't understand command:

# perl -MCwd=realpath -le 'print realpath q(.)'

should i get the mountpoint in which i am ?

we have at one server following mountpoint's:

/testfs
/testfs/filesys1
/testfs/filesys2

when i change to example:
cd /testfs/filesys1/dir1/dir2

then i get with :
perl -MCwd=realpath -le 'print realpath q(.)'

/testfs/filesys1/dir1/dir2 .

should i get /testfs/filesys1 ?

on other server i have a filesystem like:
/demo

i change to /demo/dir1/dir2
then i get with :
perl -MCwd=realpath -le 'print realpath q(.)'

/demo/dir1/dir2

perl -MCwd=realpath -le 'print realpath q(.)'

is it only for link's ?

[James R. Ferguson]

Hi (again):

> please correct if i don't understand command:

I'm sorry, I don't mean to be oblique. My thinking is that if you have the full, real path of your file, then you can walk-backwards through the (sub)paths using a stat() to find at what point you are inode=2 which is the mountpoint.

Knowing the mountpoint then allows you to use a find() by inode. Listing all files in a filesystem with the same inode gives you what you want.

Regards!

...JRF...

[Dennis Handly]

>does a command or function exits like "get filesystem"?

No need when you can roll your own.

How often are you going to track down these hardlink families that you think you need a script?

>I think it is better to user "df ."

My fingers just always type bdf. :-)

[Billa-User]

> How often are you going to track down these hardlink families that you think you need a script?

in my company we have a self-developed application , with use hard link's. i had to check if the hard link's point to the right source. how many hard link's : about 6.000

with the script i would know very fast , where the hard link "point to"

i checked the hard link's with those little script and it work's with your input perfect.

thanks

regards

[Billa-User]

final version of script:
get_file_of_hard_link.sh

[Dennis Handly]

>how many hard links: about 6.000

If you have 6 thousand links to check, you may want to do more than one at a time.