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hardlink(1)                 General Commands Manual                hardlink(1)

NAME
       hardlink - Consolidate duplicate files via hardlinks
SYNOPSIS
       hardlink [-c] [-n] [-v] [-vv] [-h] directory1 [ directory2 ... ]
DESCRIPTION
       This  manual  page  documents  hardlink,  a  program which consolidates
       duplicate files in one or more directories using hardlinks.
       hardlink traverses one or  more  directories  searching  for  duplicate
       files.   When it finds duplicate files, it uses one of them as the mas-
       ter.  It then removes all other duplicates and places  a  hardlink  for
       each  one pointing to the master file.  This allows for conservation of
       disk space where multiple directories on a  single  filesystem  contain
       many duplicate files.
       Since  hard  links  can only span a single filesystem, hardlink is only
       useful when all directories specified are on the same filesystem.
OPTIONS
       -c        Compare only the contents of the files being  considered  for
                 consolidation.   Disregards  permission,  ownership and other
                 differences.
       -f        Force hardlinking across file systems.
       -n        Do not perform the consolidation; only print  what  would  be
                 changed.
       -v        Print summary after hardlinking.
       -vv       Print  every hardlinked file and bytes saved. Also print sum-
                 mary after hardlinking.
       -h        Show help.
AUTHOR
       hardlink was written by Jakub Jelinek <jakub AT redhat.com>.
       Man page written by Brian Long.
       Man page updated by Jindrich Novy <jnovy AT redhat.com>
BUGS
       hardlink assumes that its target directory trees  do  not  change  from
       under it.  If a directory tree does change, this may result in hardlink
       accessing files and/or directories outside of  the  intended  directory
       tree.   Thus,  you  must avoid running hardlink on potentially changing
       directory trees, and especially on directory  trees  under  control  of
       another user.

                                                                   hardlink(1)