[LBo] Re: Re: Symlink peculiarities (Anerobe)

[Randy Kramer]

On Monday 08 January 2007 11:05 pm, Anerobe wrote:
> On a simplistic level it is as though I sent you the directions I follow to
> get from my home to the grocery... (turn right at the stop sign; then right
> at the light; and in two miles it will appear on your left), expecting you
> to use them from your house.

That's a pretty good analogy!

To go a step further, if the directions say: turn right at Broad Street (the 
stop sign), then right at Main Street (at the traffic light), that may be a 
little closer to what happens--you don't find Broad Street or Main Street and 
are totally lost.

An absolute path might be more like: Start from the monument at the town 
square, take Union Boulevard east to Broad Street, Broad Street south to Main 
Street, Main Street east for two miles.

In this case, the directions don't tell you how to find the town square, but 
they assume everyone can do that.  (Also, there might be a shorter path from 
your current location, but since these are all "virtual" "distances" inside a 
computer, it doesn't really matter.

Randy Kramer

Believe it or not, there are times when relative paths are useful--you (or a 
typical user) probably use them often when you are at the command line.  
Their use in a symlink is probably not very useful.



>
> Thanks for the clarification and insights!