1,440 symbolic links

Reini Urban rurban@x-ray.at
Wed Nov 17 16:10:00 GMT 2004


Dick Repasky schrieb:
> 
> The tree /etc/X11/xserver contains 720 symbolic links. The vast majority 
> of of them are locale specific and point to the directory 
> /etc/X11/xserver/C.  The only thing in /etc/X11/xserver/C is a tree called
> print.
> 
> The tree /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/xserver seems to be identical to 
> /etc/X11/xserver.
> 
> My question is: can I get rid of all those symbolic links?  The reason 
> that I ask is that I'm using Fergus' instructions for building a CD from 
> which cygwin can be run 
> (http://www.cygwin.com/ml/cygwin/2003-07/msg01117.html).  Because 
> ISO-9660 file system does not support symbolic links, the technique for 
> handling them is to create copies of everything that is symbolically 
> linked.  

You got that wrong. the above cited msg is right.

ISO-9660 does understand cygwin .lnk files (which are symlinks), just 
the +S attribute has to be fixed. See Step 5 in
http://www.cygwin.com/ml/cygwin/2003-07/msg01117.html

> For /etc/X11/xserver that means about 998 MB of disk on an ntfs 
> file system with a respectable blocking factor. /usr/X11R6/lib/xserver 
> also takes up that much space.  My hope is that X has a respectable 
> default, something like if localization file can't be read, use 
> /etc/X11/xserver/C (or /usr/X11R6/lib/xserver/C). Or, maybe 
> /etc/X11/xserver/C/print really is for printing (the tree seems to 
> contain printer specs), and if I don't want to print, I can get rid of 
> it all.
> 
> I've tried poking around at X.org, but can't seem to find documenation 
> tha's appropriate.  I'd be grateful for any of the following:
> 
>   - simple answer such as "delete with impunity - it doesn't matter"
>   - point me to appropriate documentation
>   - point me to appropriate sections of the source code.
-- 
Reini Urban
http://xarch.tu-graz.ac.at/home/rurban/

-- 
Let each man exercise the art he knows. (Aristophanes, Wasps, 422 B.C.)



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