this post was submitted on 27 May 2025
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The elusive goal of Unix – or Linux – is simplicity (www.theregister.com)
submitted 4 weeks ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

Is a link to a file... A file?

[–] [email protected] 11 points 4 weeks ago* (last edited 4 weeks ago) (1 children)

Yes.

Symbolic links are files that act as pointers to other files.
-- Source

A hardlink is the original file.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

Thanks for the clarification ! I guess everything is a file in Linux ?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

Used to be. But then systemD attacked...

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

What in systemd is not a file?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 weeks ago

Of course it's all stored in the filesystem, so there isn't anything that isn't technically a file.

But, for instance, while as before you'd have a simple log file you could access directly, now you have a binary blob that is inaccessible without systemD itself.

The are other numerous better exceptions that are better examples than systemD. DBus, for instance. InfernoOS is an interesting example of taking the "everything is a file" to heart.