I'm not sure if it is even possible to have an orphaned hard link. Let me explain why I'm asking. Bear with me.
My Setup
I am using rsync
to sync my file server to my backup server. I am using the --link-dest
rsync option to create a grandfather-father-son scheme (each backup will look like a full backup by using hard links). Example: http://www.mikerubel.org/computers/rsync_snapshots/
The backup server will be running Ubuntu with SnapRaid. SnapRaid will be configured with 1 parity drive.
SnapRaid claims on its homepage that:
If the failed disks are too many to allow a recovery, you lose the data only on the failed disks. All the data in the other disks is safe.
In my case, if 1 drive fails and SnapRaid is unable to restore the system, most of my data should still be there on the remaining drives.
Assumptions
This is where I start to get lost. I am not sure how to test these assumptions just yet. Please let me know if these assumptions are false.
#1
In theory, I should be able to pull out a single drive from my Ubuntu SnapRaid machine, plug it into another computer, and read its contents.
#2
When I plug in a single drive, I would expect to see all the hard links. However, because I am using SnapRaid, the inodes may actually be located on a different hard drive from the hard links.
Question
If my assumptions above are correct, then there is the potential for orphaned hard links when I remove a drive from the SnapRaid configuration.
What happens to these orphaned hard links?
Is this even possible?