Removing hard link without affecting original

[randalltrini]

Hello,

I am a novice at this stuff. How can I remove a hardlink that I created without affecting the original? When I send to trash and attempt to delete, it appears to try delete the original folder...

[ololx]

Hello @randalltrini
It would be safe to assume that we are dealing with a misunderstanding. Just that I created and then deleted the hard link to the folder, and everything was as expected - the original folder was not deleted.
Could you be so kind to add more details of your case?

[randalltrini]

I created a hard link using the quick-symlink app. I wanted to remove the hardlink so I sent it to the trash. When I tried to empty trash, it started to count number of files/folders to be deleted so I cancelled the delete request.

[ololx]

Alright, now it's clear.
1 - When you create a hard link to a folder, links to the files inside that folder are also created.
2 - In the file manager, a hard link appears as a regular file. It doesn't have any special markings or differences in the interface that would indicate that it is not an independent file, but a link.

Therefore, when deleting in the interface, you see the recalculation of the files being deleted (1)-(2), but these are specifically hard links, and deletion in macOS should not affect the original files.

[ololx]

I tried to recreate the situation with creating and deleting a link to a folder and show you the screenshots:

1 - create hard link "workspace-1" for folder "workspace"

2 - move hard link "workspace-1" to trash

3 - clear trash with counting files

4 - original folder "workspace" is safe

[randalltrini]

Thank you! Its is now clear in my mind I was able to successfully delete.

[ololx]

Glad to hear that. Have a good day!