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Symlink DSpace avoids wasting disk performance and space because the files
are not copied. There is only symbolic links to the files created (via "<tt>ln -s</tt>"

• so it is necessary to have the files on some "mounted" disk). No copying, no
  wasting. Because symlinks are done on the file system layer they are completely
  transparent to DSpace - for DSpace they are real files. Disadvantage is only
  that it is impossible to submit a file from a network connected computer (a
  file that is stored on "unmounted" disk).

Installation

All you have to do to install and use Symlink DSpace is to download
the latest patch (for right version, now 1.3.2 only). In the <tt>$DSPACE_SRC</tt> directory run the following
commands:

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Symlink DSpace is not a big project. The code for making symlinks is
relatively simple. We found that rewriting the file ingest process in DSpace
is not effective - it is not easy to rewrite the code and it is not
comfortable to do rewriting with every new version of DSpace. It is more
pleasant for the system (and for the developer too ) to only add some code.
This is the way we have chosen. Unfortunately it requires a small trade-off

• it is not allowed to give the files to DSpace directly. It is neccessary
  to use "a backdoor". The "backdoor" lies in submitting/importing only the text
  file that contents the path to the real file we want to make the symlink to.

For example:

• assume we want to submit/import file <tt> /disk1/data/files/video_file.avi </tt>
• we have to create text file <tt> video_file.txt </tt> with content "<tt> /disk1/data/files/video_file.avi </tt>"
• then we sumbit the text file <tt> video_file.txt </tt>

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