[SOLVED] Binding" questions

[ChrisL]

Just wanted to add an update and mark this one solved.  I was able to add the Symlinks from LL2.2 and Mint to the common "Data" partition, and those work fine.


Windows 7 does have symlinks as well - from command line with mklink, or there are some GUIs (https://code.google.com/p/symlinker/ is one and there are at least a couple others).  The mklink command is very similar to the Linux version.  I ran into some problems though, as Windows did not want to let me delete the folders I was linking from (which is necessary to establish the link).  I am sure there are ways around this, but I decided it would be simpler and more direct to add the folders from the partition (Music, Documents, etc.) to the Windows Libraries, and then set those Folders as the Default locations for Documents, Music, etc. which was pretty simple and works quite well.


If it would be helpful to anyone I will try and put together a tutorial based upon my experience.  The info is here in the forum and in the Help Manual, etc. but a little scattered if you are not sure what you are looking for.

EDIT: I just saw that gold_finger has an awesome Tutorial on this.  I have to check in there 1st in the future and save myself some trouble!

Thanks again!


Chris

[ChrisL]

Thanks gold_finger, Wirefree, and ukbrian!


I think I understand binding now, and symlinks (at least a cursory understanding).


I decided to try symlinks first (coin toss) and I seem to be in business now!


On to the Mint install and Windows next. This is awesome!


Another example of the tremendous support here in the Linux Lite forums!


Chris

[Wirezfree]

Hi,

Regarding "binding" or "mounting" from Windows.
If I remember correctly from my early days...
If the partitions are NTFS/FAT they are automatically mounted by Windows,
and they are given the next/sequential drive letter.

If you only have ext4 partitions
Then you need to install 3rd party software to access ext4 from Windows,
and it's usually very clunky & slow.

If you need to retain a cross platform drive "data",
then make it ntfs, and linux can access that.

Dave

[gold_finger]

1) If I bind a home folder to a folder in the new partition folder - and I save a document (for example) is it physically saved only on the new partition (in Document folder), or on the new partition and in the home folder ("Documents" in home in this example)?


As I understood it (or thought I did) initially, it would be saved on the new partition only, but with the binding, it would appear in my home folder "documents" as if it were actually there, but I saw something that made me question that and the project would be less helpful if that is the case.

Your understanding is correct.

When binding the Documents folder on data partition to the Documents folder in your Home, things end up physically located on the data partition.  The Documents folder in Home only serves as a mount point -- a place in the file system where the Documents folder on the data partition gets directly accessed from.  A symlink performs a similar function, except instead of providing direct access to the folder, it's a link pointing to the desired folder on the data partition.  They are just two different ways to accomplish same thing.

If you wanted to see that nothing is actually being saved under Home, you could temporarily disable auto-mounting of your data partition and then reboot computer.  You'd then see the same folders in your Home, but there would be nothing in them.  You could also confirm that everything is on the data partition by using your file manager (Thunar) to navigate to the main mount point of the data partition and look in the Documents folder there.  Eg.  If you used mount point in the tutorial, just navigate to "/mnt/DATA/Documents" (instead of /home/chris/Documents) and you'll see all of your files there.  Long story short -- binding IS doing what you intended for it to do.

2) So far, I am able to bind my LL folders to the folders in the new partition but I am clueless about how I might do this in my Windows 7 O/S.   Or maybe this is unnecessary and I can/should just navigate documents/downloads/etc. to be saved in the new (ntfs) partition?

Unfortunately, I can't answer this because I've never tried it and haven't really used Windows more than once or twice a year for the last five years.  Don't know if "binding" as done in Linux is possible or not, but I'm sure you could create symlinks to the data partition.  If noone here can answer exactly how that's done, maybe try asking on the Windows 7 Forum.  I'm pretty sure that symlinks can be done easily.

[ukbrian]

1) does this link just last the session, and upon reboot I need to re-establish?

They stick until you delete them.

2) will the folder appear in my home folder (as in the example "videos" like it normally would?

Yes, try it, if it goes wrong just delete the symlink and try again. All your data is safe on your data drive.

3) Is it possible to establish a symlink (or similar link) in Windows to the data?

Sorry I can't help you there. My knowledge is very limited but I've used this method for the last 3-4 years with no problems.

Symlinks are wonderful!

[Wirezfree]

Hi,

Early on I was in the same position.
I wanted to "bind" separate folders on separate partitions to my /home/ directories
I got a lot of help from gold_finger.

see here:
https://www.linuxliteos.com/forums/index.php?topic=170.msg854#msg854

Dave

[ChrisL]

Hi agaim 
I use  a symlink after the data partition is mounted by fstab like this after deleting the original Video folder

Code: [Select]

sudo ln -s /home/username/data/Video /home/username/

Hi ukbrian, thanks for the suggestion. As you might imagine, I know nothing about symlink(s). Any pros/cons of symlink vs. binding?

If I establish a symlink such as in your example:

1) does this link just last the session, and upon reboot I need to re-establish?
2) will the folder appear in my home folder (as in the example "videos" like it normally would?
3) Is it possible to establish a symlink (or similar link) in Windows to the data?

Sorry about all the questions, but this is all new to me (learning a lot though)!

Chris

[ukbrian]

Hi agaim 
I use  a symlink after the data partition is mounted by fstab like this after deleting the original Video folder

Code: [Select]

sudo ln -s /home/username/data/Video /home/username/

[ChrisL]

Some have you may have seen my thread about creating a designated partition for data (documents, music, video, pictures, downloads) to be shared by three operating systems (auto-mount question).  I was trying to use this procedure:


http://community.linuxmint.com/tutorial/view/1609


(which I just noticed recently was written by our very own gold-finger some time ago).  At any rate with some help, I got through the mounting process and now have a partition that is auto mounted at start-up with fstab additions (at least in LL so far).


gold-finger's tutorial references another thread for binding the directories in my new partition to those in my home directories.   However, now that I am mid-project I am wondering if it will accomplish what I intended (or not) and had a few questions.  I have tried to research this on-line with not a lot of luck as any search with "binding" seems to yield results concerning servers and networking (or sewing  ).


1) If I bind a home folder to a folder in the new partition folder - and I save a document (for example) is it physically saved only on the new partition (in Document folder), or on the new partition and in the home folder ("Documents" in home in this example)?


As I understood it (or thought I did) initially, it would be saved on the new partition only, but with the binding, it would appear in my home folder "documents" as if it were actually there, but I saw something that made me question that and the project would be less helpful if that is the case.


2) So far, I am able to bind my LL folders to the folders in the new partition but I am clueless about how I might do this in my Windows 7 O/S.   Or maybe this is unnecessary and I can/should just navigate documents/downloads/etc. to be saved in the new (ntfs) partition?


Any clarification appreciated!  Thanks folks!


Chris