I thought I’ll make this thread for all of you out there who have questions but are afraid to ask them. This is your chance!
I’ll try my best to answer any questions here, but I hope others in the community will contribute too!
Why does it feel that Linux infighting is the main reason why it never takes off? It’s always “distro X sucks”, “installing from Y is stupid”, “any system running Z should burn”
How do symlinks work from the point of view of software?
Imagine I have a file in my downloads folder called movie.mp4, and I have a symlink to it in my home folder.
Whenever I open the symlink, does the software (player) understand «oh this file seems like a symlink, I should go and open the original file», or it’s a filesystem level stuff and software (player) basically has no idea if a file I’m opening is a symlink or the original movie.mp4?
Can I use sync software (like Dropbox, Gdrive or whatever) to sync symlinks? Can I use sync software to sync actual files, but only have symlinks in my sync folder?
Is there a rule of thumb to predict how software behaves when dealing with symlinks?
I just don’t grok symbolic links.
A symlink works more closely to the first way you described it. The software opening a symlink has to actually follow it. It’s possible for a software to not follow the symlink (either intentionally or not).
So your sync software has to actually be able to follow symlinks. I’m not familiar with how gdrive and similar solutions work, but I know this is possible with something like rsync
So I guess it’s something like pressing ctrl+c: most software doesn’t specifically handle this hotkey so in general it will interrupt a running process, but software can choose to handle it differently (like in vim ctrl+C does not interrupt it).
Thanks.
Fun fact: pressing X (close button) on a window does not make it that your app is closed, it just sends a signal that you wish to close it, your app can choose what to do with this signal.
Mods, perhaps a weekly post like this would be beneficial? Lowering the bar to entry with some available support and helping to keep converts.
Agreed. @[email protected], I think this would be a great idea - making a weekly megathread for Linux questions, preferably also stickied for visibility.
Ok, I just stickied this post here, but I am not going to manage making a new one each week :)
I am an admin at lemmy.ml and was actually only added as a mod to this community so that my deletions would federate (because there was a bug where non-mod admin deletions weren’t federating a while ago). The other mods here are mostly inactive and most of the mod activity is by me and other admins.
Skimming your history here, you seem alright; would you like to be a mod of /c/[email protected] ?
Please feel free to make me a mod too. I am not crazy active, but I think my modest contributions will help.
And I can make this kind of post on a biweekly or monthly basis :) I think weekly might be too often since the post frequency here isn’t crazy high
Ok, you and @[email protected] are both mods of /c/[email protected] now. Thanks!
