link farm

file system, Unix A directory tree that contains mostly

symbolic links to files in a master directory tree of files.

Link farms save space when one is maintaining several nearly

identical copies of the same source tree - for example, when

the only difference is architecture-dependent object files.

They also mean that changes to the master tree are instantly

visible in the link farm. Good text editors provide the

option to replace a link with a new version of the target file

when saving thus allowing the farm to have its own versions of

just those files that differ from the master tree.

E.g. "Let's freeze the source and then rebuild the FROBOZZ-3

and FROBOZZ-4 link farms."

Link farms may also be used to get around restrictions on the

number of "-I" (include-file directory) arguments on older C

preprocessors. However, they can also get completely out of

hand, becoming the file system equivalent of spaghetti code.

[Jargon File]

(2001-02-08)