[Nix-dev] nix store: hardlink vs symlink (was Re: python application vs python environment)

[Marc Weber]

> - hardlinks for individual files
Isn't there a permission issue? As user you should not be allowed to
change hardlinked files - but you want to delet theme (because you want
to be allowed to remove ~/.nix-profile). Isn't that the reason why you
need to be root to create hardlinks?

You're right everything is in /nix/store thus readonly.
Think about hard link limits: nix-store --optimize does already hardlink
files. What happens if you run into max link count reached problems?
(Don't know exactly. I think its several thausand hardlinks for each
file depending on fs). So at least you should ensure that you don't run
into problems here.

Mlrc Weber