Can’t the file stay in the same “spot” in storage and be just linked to?
In: Technology
If you just want the file accessible from two different paths you can do that. What do then do is create a Symbolic link. It is not a common thing to do in Windows but quite common in UNIX environments [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symbolic_link](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symbolic_link)
The difference from a copy is you have only one file so if you open it with one name and change it then the same changes is there if you open it with the other namer.
You could design a file system that use something similar when you copy a file and then just duplicate a block that changes. It would require a lot of work to implement. It would also have interesting effects like you can run out of space by just editing a file that remains the same size.
In practice just making a copy of a file is a lot simpler, the advantages of a complex system like that is not with the complexity is adds.
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