hard link unlinking

[pizzacake]

I'm running OS X Leopard 10.5.4 on an Intel iMac.

In my user directory I create a text file called firstTextFile and list the directory's contents

imac:~ me$ ls -l ~/
-rw-r--r--@ 1 me staff 354 11 Sep 20:26 firstTextFile.rtf

then I create a hard link to this firstTextFile

imac:~ me$ ln /Users/me/firstTextFile.rtf secondTextFile.rtf

then list directory contents

imac:~ me$ ls -l ~/
-rw-r--r--@ 2 me staff 354 11 Sep 20:26 firstTextFile.rtf
-rw-r--r--@ 2 me staff 354 11 Sep 20:26 secondTextFile.rtf

the 2 indicates they are hard linked (pointers) to the same data

now I modify firstTextFile and save it

then list directory contents

imac:~ me$ ls -l ~/
-rw-r--r--@ 1 me staff 363 11 Sep 20:31 firstTextFile.rtf
-rw-r--r--@ 1 me staff 354 11 Sep 20:26 secondTextFile.rtf

now the two files are unlinked separate files. I always thought if I open a hard link and modify it when I open the other hard links they also would be modified as all these hard links point to the same data. Anyone know what's going on?

 

[BobZune]

How you modify matters. Many editors delete and recreate the file, so the hard linking is lost (unlinked). Try a low level editor and see if that just modifies the file without deleting/creating-with-same-name.