Tip for organising media: Use hard links instead of alias
  • Vibber
    super8 member
    Posts: 166
    Joined: Tue Sep 20, 2005 1:02 pm

    Tip for organising media: Use hard links instead of alias

    by Vibber » Mon Feb 22, 2010 7:15 pm

    Hi I found out something today.
    I want to have my media in the same folder as my Modul8 project, but when I want to reuse media from another project it would be nice to create an alias in the new folder instead of creating a copy of the file.
    Aliases don't work in Modul8 but I found another solution using 'hard links'. I wrote a short explanation here on my blog:

    http://www.udart.dk/2010/02/22/modul8-q ... ith-links/
  • vanakaru
    master
    Posts: 669
    Joined: Mon Sep 25, 2006 9:24 pm

    by vanakaru » Mon Feb 22, 2010 10:41 pm

    I hate terminal and anything that needs typing because I make typos all the time. So this time you need to delete the space before you type /. That space will be there if you drag the destination folder to terminal.
    But are you sure this method does not just create a copy. If I have just these two files in the same folder the size of the folder is 2x the size of original file.

    Moreover it made think. And I tried another trick - when I export to H.264 a reference movie of 4kb is created. I can duplicate this file to any folder I want it to be in and it refers always back to the master mov. And using this 4kb mov in M8 is fine.
    So if you open your clip in QT and Save As Reference Movie your are fine to use these in Modul8.
    I can remember vaguely some talk about this method in the past.
    So thanks for refreshing my brain and having working trick just when I need it.
  • Vibber
    super8 member
    Posts: 166
    Joined: Tue Sep 20, 2005 1:02 pm

    by Vibber » Tue Feb 23, 2010 4:01 pm

    Hi I checked it and the hard link method does not create a copy. I copied a 1GB file onto an empty drive made a link to a new file in the same location and hit cmd+i. The total space used did not change.
    Also if you type 'man ln' in the terminal you get this explanation:

    The ln utility creates a new directory entry (linked file) which has the same modes as the original file. It is useful for maintaining multiple copies of a file in many places at once without using up storage for the ``copies''; instead, a link ``points'' to the original copy.

    Thanx for the other tip about reference movies. What happens if you accidentally move the original mov file?
  • vanakaru
    master
    Posts: 669
    Joined: Mon Sep 25, 2006 9:24 pm

    by vanakaru » Tue Feb 23, 2010 4:49 pm

    Vibber wrote:Thanx for the other tip about reference movies. What happens if you accidentally move the original mov file?


    Even if the original is moved the reference finds it.

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