NAME

       linkToDirs.pl - hard links files in directories with others

SYNOPSIS

               linkToDirs.pl [--linkWith copyBackupDir] [--linkWith ...]
                             --targetDir targetForSourceDir
                             [--progressReport number[,timeframe]]
                              [--printDepth] [--dontLinkSymlinks]
                             [--ignoreErrors] [--saveRAM] [-T tmpdir]
                             [--createSparseFiles [--blockSize]]
                             [--maxHardLinks]
                             sourceDir ...

DESCRIPTION

       Make a de-duplicated copy of files in one directory to another location.  Utilizes hard links to the full
       extent possible to avoid wasting storage space.

       Usage note: whereas many file copy utilities have just two primary parameters (the source and
       destination), linkToDirs.pl allows three primary parameters:
           * source (sourceDir)
           * destination (targetDir)
           * and a reference location (linkWith [optional]) The reference location is the place to look for
       existing content which can be hard linked to. Files with the same contents in sourceDir are hard linked
       always in targetDir.

OPTIONS

       --linkWith, -w
                   linkWith target; the backups where other backups have to be
                   linked to use this parameter multiple times for multiple
                   directories
                   if you do not use this option, the program will just copy and
                   link 'sourceDir'

       --targetDir, -t
                   path(s) to directory where backups specified by
                   --sourceDir should be placed

       --progressReport, -P
                   print progress report after each 'number' files
                   additional you may add a time frame after which a message is
                   printed
                   if you want to print a report each 1000 files and after
                   one minute and 10 seconds, use: -P 1000,1m10s

       --printDepth, -D
                   print depth of actual read directory during backup

       --dontLinkSymlinks
                   do not hard link identical symbolic links

       --ignoreErrors, -i
                   if set, don't stop in case of errors when copying

       --saveRAM
                   write temporary dbm files in --tmpdir
                   use this if you do not have enough RAM

       --tmpdir, -T
                   directory for temporary files, default is </tmp>

       --createSparseFiles, -s
                   if a file is indicated as a sparse file and that file has to be
                   copied, then external program 'cp' is called to copy that file
                   (gnucp / linux does some inspection about sparse files, if your
                   OS related version of cp does not support this functionality,
                   then this option will not work for you)

       --blockSize
                   block size used to check if a file is / may be a sparse file
                   default is 512 bytes (which should be fine for most file systems)

       sourceDir
                   path(s) to directories which have to be linked to other backups
                   use this parameter multiple times for multiple directories

       --maxHardLinks
                   maximum number of hard links to use
                   zero (default) means limit depends on file system used only

COPYRIGHT

       Copyright  (c)  2012-2022  by  Heinz-Josef  Claes  (see  README).  Published under the GNU General Public
       License v3 or any later version

perl v5.40.1                                       2025-08-27                                      LINKTODIRS(1)