On Thu, Mar 02, 2000 at 04:52:54PM +0100, Richard Torkar wrote:
> > Not only would this save storage space, they reasoned;
> > it would also result in substantial performance improvements. Moreover, it
> > would make it faster for information technology (IT) managers
> > to install computers for new employees since theyd no longer be
> > required to copy massive amounts of data each time they set up a
> > new desktop.
>
> Well, actually AFAIKT, it's not symbolic links as we have in UNIX-land
> that's the great part.
> As I understand it it's the server part actively searching for identical
> files and then symlinking them, i.e. automagically.
>
> What I can't figure out is, why it took them so many years, and are they
> really first?
> Because if they are first then this is the first case that I know of
> Microsoft 'inventing' things.
Invented, hardly. Checksumming/hashing is really easy in this
sort of scheme.
foreach file
sum = md5sum(file)
if in_hash(sum)
remove(file)
else
add_to_hash(sum, 1);
done
My understanding of the press release is that they have a method
for link()/readlink(), and a program similar to the above that can be
run by the administrator to link() duplicate files.
To do this live and automagically as the system is running
obviously takes more effort, but the concept is the same. Personally, I
wouldn't want my identical files linked unless I know about it.
Otherwise, I'm changing three files when I think I am changing one.
Then, of course, they could do COW on that set of links. But
that adds even more complexity. And I have no way of discerning from
the press release whether that is the case.
Joel
--"You don't make the poor richer by making the rich poorer." - Sir Winston Churchill
jlbec@evilplan.org http://zenII.uk.linux.org/~jlbec/
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