link farm
<file system, Unix> A directory tree that contains mostly symbolic links
to files in a master directory tree of files. Link farms save space when one is
maintaining several nearly identical copies of the same source tree - for
example, when the only difference is architecture-dependent object files. They
also mean that changes to the master tree are instantly visible in the link
farm. Good text editors provide the option to replace a link with a new version
of the target file when saving thus allowing the farm to have its own versions
of just those files that differ from the master tree.
E.g. "Let's freeze the source and then rebuild the FROBOZZ-3 and FROBOZZ-4 link
farms."
Link farms may also be used to get around restrictions on the number of "-I"
(include-file directory) arguments on older C preprocessors. However, they can
also get completely out of hand, becoming the file system equivalent of
spaghetti code.
[Jargon File]
(2001-02-08)
Nearby terms:
link editor « linked list « linker « link farm
» link loader » link rot » links
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