OSF DCE Administration Guide--Core Components

OSF DCE Administration Guide—Core Components
21.1.1 Creating a Soft Link
Use the DCE control program (dcecp) link create command to create a soft link. In
addition to the name for the new soft link, you must specify the soft link’s destination
name, or existing name to which the new soft link points, with the -linkto option. You
can specify any name in the local cell namespace or in any foreign cell namespace, as
the destination name, including another soft link.
To create a soft link, you must have insert permission to the directory in which you
intend to create the soft link.
Note: If you create a soft link that points to another soft link, make sure you do
not create a soft link loop. A soft link loop occurs when you specify a
destination name that eventually points back to the new soft link’s own
link name. The clerk detects this error.
All soft links that you create with the link create command are permanent and never
expire unless you use the command’s -timeout option to specify an expiration date and
time value for the CDS_LinkTimeout attribute of the soft link.
Enter the expiration date and time value in the format
yyyy-mm-dd-hh:mm:ss
For example, the following value indicates that, if the soft link still exists (that is, has not
been deleted manually) on August 25, 1994, at 4:00 p.m., CDS will automatically delete
it the next time the directory in which it is stored is skulked:
CDS_LinkTimeout=(1994-08-25-16:00:00)
If you use the -timeout option to specify an expiration value for a soft link’s
CDS_LinkTimeout attribute, you can also specify an extension value, which is a period
of time to be added to the expiration date and time that are already assigned. Enter the
extension value in the format ddd-hh:mm:ss. For example, a value of 030-00:00:00
indicates that, if the destination name of the soft link still exists when the assigned
expiration date and time are reached, CDS allows another 30 days to pass before it again
checks, during a skulk, for the existence of the destination name. If, at that time, the
destination name cannot be found, CDS deletes the soft link.
The following command creates a permanent soft link named /.:/sales/asia that points to
a directory named /.:/sales/eur:
dcecp> link create /.:/sales/asia -linkto /.:/sales/eur
The following command creates a soft link named /.:/mfg/robo1 that points to an object
entry named /.:/mfg/robotics_controller01 and sets its expiration date and time:
dcecp> link create /.:/mfg/robo1 -linkto /.:/mfg/robotics_controller01 \
-timeout 1994-12-12-09:00:00
In the preceding command, the expiration date and time placed in the
CDS_LinkTimeout attribute value indicates that CDS will delete the soft link
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