Linking Files: Hard Link vs. Soft Link?

[Amichai Rotman]

Hello,

I have an alphabetized file hierarchy I'd like to organize into categories.
These are all my media files - documents, video, audio etc.

I created another hierarchy containing the categories I want and linked the
files from the main hierarchy to the relevant category, using a soft link (*ln
-s*).

I realized it's a waste of space (two inodes for each file), so I thought
re-creating the links as hard links.

My dilemmas:

Is it really better? - I understand that if I hard link a file, it is
actually the same file, and if I delete the so called link I actually delete
the real file - might be dangerous... I know I am stating the obvious, but
I'd like your input on this (pros and cons).

Is there a way to create hard links with a GUI? - I am using KDE 3.5.10.
Till now I've created half a dozen hard links using the *ln* command in CLI,
but it will take me forever to create all those I need....

Is it possible to create a hard link to a directory somehow? - when I use
the *ln* command to link a directory, I get an error saying it is not
possible. If that's true, the whole thing is pointless: I'd like to create a
directory under the category hierarchy and then hard link the files under
it. It will still mean less inodes, but it seems to me there has to be a
way....

Thanks!

.:====================================================:.

Amichai Rotman

UIN#: 6401746
Registered Linux User#: 201192 [http://counter.li.org/]
Registered Ubuntu User #12851 [http://ubuntucounter.geekosophical.net]

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