Changelog
- 2009-01-30: first shot
Existing Guideline
No guideline that would limit the use of hard links exists.
Proposal
Following change to Packaging Guidelines is proposed: Add a section Use of Hard Links which would read:
If a file has more than one name, all names should be present in a single directory. Hard links that span multiple directories are prohibited, since they will make it impossible to install a package in setups where the directories reside on different file systems.
Motivations
The wording of the paragraph above pretty much explains the motivation. The example where this caused problems is [1].
Existing practice
TBD: Determine which packages currently use hard links in a manner which would conflict with this guideline.