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Subject: Re: Virtual links

Re: Virtual links

From: Chris Terry <tuba_man_at_comcast.net>
Date: Sat, 21 Feb 2004 07:57:09 -0700

Linux is pretty nice with symbolic links instead of shortcuts. They
point to the exact same data as the original, and most programs handle
them as if they were normal files. The only problem is that this
technique doesn't seem to work with any Microsoft partitions (fat32/NTFS).
If I remember correctly, the file format for Windows shortcuts is pretty
simple, and you should be able to do a simple shell script that creates
the .lnk files. I'll look into it this afternoon.

Jens Arnold wrote:

>Hello BlueChip
>
>On 21.02.2004, you wrote:
>
>
>
>>Just another stray thought that jumped into my head while
>>cataloguing my MP3's...
>>Is there a utility which will deliberately create cross-linked
>>files on a FAT32 partition.
>>...
>>The bad things:
>># Windoze will whinge about cross-linked files during it's
>>disk scan # You will need to remember to erase the 'virtual'
>>entries when you erase the 'master'
>>
>>
>
>This would really be a _very_ bad idea - a FAT(32) file system
>with cross-linked files will be considered as damaged by any
>file system checking software because it is out of FAT(32)
>specs. You couldn't use any standard tool to check for errors or
>to defragment such a file system.
>
>
>
>>Another idea is to have an MP3 file with nothing but an ID3v2
>>tag (and maybe 1mS of audio to keep software happy); the tag
>>can contain only an XLNK entry (which conforms nicely to v2
>>user-defined-tags) which will in turn contain the path to the
>>real file.
>>
>>
>
>I did also think about the idea of having file links in rockbox
>and would consider this A Good Thing(TM). My idea is perhaps
>even simpler: Just use the approach windows already has - use
>.lnk files (=windows shortcuts). This way you can create them
>in windows with no additional tool (don't know about linux).
>These .lnk files are small files which contain the path to
>the destination and a few other things. The format is not
>officially docuemnted by Microsoft but there are a number of
>documents on the net. One good document is
>http://www.i2s-lab.com/Papers/The_Windows_Shortcut_File_Format.pdf
>
>
>Regards, Jens
>
>_______________________________________________
>http://cool.haxx.se/mailman/listinfo/rockbox
>
>
>

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Received on 2004-02-21

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