Symlinks likely wouldn’t work for a torrent, because that’s more like a shortcut; The symlink doesn’t actually point to the file, it just points to another filepath. Hardlinks would potentially work, but the hardlink must be on the same drive as the linked file; You can’t have a hardlink for your C: drive on your D: drive, for instance. Hardlinks basically tell the drive that there are two (or more) file paths that will reach the same file on the disc.

For a comparison, symlinks are like taking a trip to two different locations. You arrive at the first location, and they tell you “oh, actually what you need is over at location B.” So then you need to travel all the way over to location B to get what you need. But a hardlink is like having two potential routes to get to the same location. It doesn’t matter which road you take, because they both lead to the same place. But a torrent client likely won’t be able to handle the “oh actually you need to go visit location B” instructions, and will just crash/freeze/refuse to seed.

[–] themachine@lemmy.world 3 points 9 months ago

Symlinks likely wouldn’t work for a torrent, because that’s more like a shortcut; The symlink doesn’t actually point to the file, it just points to another filepath.

They are kinda like a shortcut but they are resolved directly by the filesystem and in the fast majority of cases should work perfectly fine if done correctly. In OPs case I'd probably leave the original file intact and create the link at the new desired destination.

You can’t have a hardlink for your C: drive on your D: drive

Thats why I didn't recommend hardlinks.

But a torrent client likely won’t be able to handle the “oh actually you need to go visit location B” instructions, and will just crash/freeze/refuse to seed.

You're just pulling that out of your ass.

*all of this is largely under the context of linux but should translate to windows