TIL: Reflinks

Reflinks are a new type of link similar to hard links. The big difference is when you edit a file, it’s copied and the original file is left untouched! It’s also known as “copy on write” (COW).

It’s only supported on some file systems right now:

• Linux
  • BTRFS
  • XFS
  • OCFS2
• Mac OS X
  • APFS