Depends on your OS, but symlinks can do that for you - file exists once, but multiple "files" link to it. The application (torrent client) doesn't care.
this post was submitted on 21 Nov 2023
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You're wording is a little weird, so hopefully we're understanding your situation and desire. Symlinks won't work, since they're basically just links to files or directories, i.e. they do not contain the actual data. Most the software you'd use to torrent or to play media is going to struggle with following a bunch of symlinks. Hardlinks are better suited to seeding a torrent from one directory, while maintaining a copy elsewhere to fit in with your media filename standards, without double the storage size.
If symlinking is like forwarding your mail to a new address, hardlinking is like having one house with two or more addresses. Each address brings you to the "real" house. Deleting one address (maybe because you're done seeding) does not remove the house or the other addresses. If you move or delete the target of a symlink, that link and any other symlink pointing to that location also breaks. The actual data of a file doesn't get deleted until ALL of the hardlinks have been deleted.
Symlinks? Pretty sure that exists on windows.
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.
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
Sounds like you want *arr stack. Radarr will trigger torrent client to download files, then it will make a copy (hard link), rename files and put them in folder structure as you like. You will have 2 folders with same movie, but they take space only for one
I second what another commenter said about hardlinks. I used to use a program (paid) called Filebot that makes this process pretty easy. You download all torrents to say G:/Downloads then drag the files into Filebot and it will search across internet media databases to match the metadata and automatically rename and hardlink the files to say G:/Movies using a format you specify.
For example:
G:/Downloads/Movies/Oppenheimer.2023.BluRay.2160p.HDR.MULTi.5.1.AV1.Opus.DVD5-CAV1aR.mkv
to
G:/Movies/Oppenheimer (2023).mkv
Then you can still seed everything in G:/Downloads while having a nicely organised media library. The actual file on disk does not get deleted until all hardlinks have been deleted.
Seconding hardlinks, but one (potentially important) note is that they won’t work on a NAS. A hardlink basically tells the drive there are two ways to navigate to the same file on the disc. But this doesn’t work over a networked drive, (at least, not in my experience) even if the two locations stay on the same drive.
You would probably have to run the hardlink command on the NAS through SSH or something to achieve the same effect but it should still be possible.
Why would you ever want to rename the file though? The extra tags are useful, eg for when searching matching subtitles or remembering quality without needing to check ffprobe.
Filebot supports subtitle downloading and programs like Plex & Jellyfin work better when files are named organised according to convention.
The utility of having a well organised media library is more useful to me than the non-issues of downloading subtitles or figuring out quality.