[OT] Hardlinks and directories

[Gordon Messmer]

On 02/12/2010 05:56 PM, Patrick O'Callaghan wrote:
> One of the comments to the LWN article also mentions the case of Apple
> allowing these links for the sake of their Time Machine backup system (I
> think it's restricted to that special case so it doesn't run the risk of
> a general-purpose feature). Presumably that's the main reason TM doesn't
> work with non-Apple partitions, despite several NAS manufacturers
> advertising that it does. I just bought an Iomega NAS partly on the
> strength of this and it definitely doesn't work.

I believe that OS X is supposed to create a .dmg (more or less) file for 
Time Machine when used with non-local disks.  Even when using Apple's 
Time Capsule, that's what it will do.  OS X can then mount the dmg file 
locally and do whatever it wants, independent of the capabilities of the 
NAS device.