[FF22]

CONCLUSION: THERE ARE NOT REALLY TWO COPIES OF THE FILES!!!

Actually, GhostCommand accesses those files in yet a 3rd way from what I could tell - they are LISTED (NOT REALLY) under and SDCARD folder and if you want to copy stuff, that's where it seems to need to go.

[varunsain]

Great thanks guys.. Makes sense now.. They're putting a mirror link with equal file privileges to accommodate android file layout system..

[VerryBestr]

If you connect in with SSH and developer mode you'll discover they're what's called a symbolic link, which is kind of like a shortcut in Windows (but not really). It's a Unix thing that anyone from the Windows world probably isn't familiar with.

If \path1\X is a symbolic link to \path2\X, then \path1\X is just a kind of "shortcut" and takes up hardly any space itself. If you delete only \path1\X, you should not recover much space, and the original file \path2\X still exists. If you delete only \path2\X, then you should recover the space it occupied -- in this case, the "shortcut" \path1\X still exists, but trying to use it will give some kind of error because the file it points to no longer exists (and perhaps the PlayBook OS will just delete it because it is now useless).

But QNX (like Unix systems) apparently permits another kind of link, often called a "hard link." If \path1\X and \path2\X are "hard links" for the same file, then they are just two different names for the same file. If you delete either one, the other one is still valid and the file still exists, so you don't recover much space. You have to delete both names before the system will delete the actual file and recover its space.

If symbolic links are being used, which are the original files and which are the symbolic links?

[taylortbb]

While I don't doubt what you're saying, you can use symlinks on Windows I use them personally to sync some folders to dropbox from other locations on my computer.

I also just decided to test your theory about Windows not accounting for symlinks - it does. I just symlinked my video folder (over 20GB worth) to another location on my hard drive. The used space on my hard drive reported in Windows explorer did not change at all. EDIT: That's on Windows 7 BTW.

Seeing as the "about device" thing seems to report the correct value as well, I am wondering where people are seeing the wrong value? In Windows? Maybe it can't deal with symlinks it didn't create itself?

You're technically correct they do exist. But they're not supported by Explorer (last I checked) so for most of the Windows world they might as well not exist.

Windows can account for its own symbolic links, but SMB (Windows file sharing) has no symbolic link support I am aware of. Even if it does, Samba hides symbolic links rather than exposing them as such (because many older Windows systems don't support them at all). So, when your Windows system access the PB it just sees two files with no indication they're symlinked. Even over USB the PlayBook appears as a network adaptor and you still use Samba/SMB.

If symbolic links are being used, which are the original files and which are the symbolic links?

The individual files aren't being symlinked, the entire folders are. So shared/misc/android/Pictures is a symlink to shared/photos. You can't delete the symlinks and you can't delete the top level folders in shared, so users will never see a broken link.

[FF22]

This might not be the place for this question but .... knowledgeable folks here...

The other day I used Ghost Commander to copy an entire folder of pictures to my pb's photos folder from my WinComputer. They appeared to copy. Ghost Commander showed both the folder and the photos. BUT the pb's Photo app showed no signs of the new "album." And while AirBrowser, Files&Folders and File Browser all showed the folder they showed no contents in that folder. And WinExplorer using usb and/or wifi-sharing showed no evidence of the folder.

I found later (hinted above) that if I use GhostCommander to copy to a more obscure folder sdcard/xxxx/pictures or something similarly odd (dcim), then the pictures were on my pb and showed in the native app. So, there is yet another symbolic link or some such??? (sorry, but I deleted Ghost Commander to explore battery issues)

[i-love]

Prior to the official 2.0, the 2.0 beta showed duplicate files in native video app. Not any more.

Some of my sideloaded apps can't "see" files that native apps see, like some books, (I upgraded without full-wipe). Could anyone tell me if the following statement is true?


OS 2.0 do have native books folder or maybe other folders that has real files and may not be seen by android apps directly, but anything in misc/android folder can be see by native QNX apps. This may make sense because Android run-time is a sub-system, hence should have less previlige.

[taylortbb]

OS 2.0 do have native books folder or maybe other folders that has real files and may not be seen by android apps directly, but anything in misc/android folder can be see by native QNX apps. This may make sense because Android run-time is a sub-system, hence should have less previlige.

This is correct. There are folders in the PB's shared folder which aren't represented in the Android filesystem.

[FF22]

I noticed in GhostCommander that when I drilled down in the pb's folders (it might have been under the sdcard - downloading mapdroid maps so don't want to switch to Ghost), all of the pb's normal folders were present EXCEPT there was NO Documents folder. I had to copy something to the Downloads folder and the move it using a qnx filemanager app.

[shikhar10882]

Excuse my ignorence here, but would like to know one thing....
while it has been established that these 'so called duplicate files' are not using any recognizable space on pb, will it be justified if I start interpreting the space available shown in double? As in... If I check the properties of my Z drive, and it shows me that Total Disk Capacity as 13.96 gb (that's the best I could get on my 16 gb Playbook) and it shows the free space as 4 gb, will it be right for me to infer that it is actually 8 gb space available for me?

[FF22]

You might be better served by looking at the PB's Options (gear), About, both General and Hardware for space and/or capacity.

[peter9477]

Just to clarify some of the confusion around this, it is the folders which have symbolic links, not the individual files.

This has the side effect of making it appear as though there are two places a given "duplicated" file exists but that's not the case. It's actually only in one folder, but there are two different names (basically aliases) for that folder.

Here's the view from the command line:

$ ls -l /accounts/1000/shared/misc/android/
drwxrws---   2 android_root 1000_shared    4096 Feb 21 06:36 Alarms
drwxrws---   3 101481000    1000_shared    4096 Feb 21 07:20 Android
drwxrwsrwx   2 android_root 1000_shared    4096 Feb 21 06:36 DCIM
lrwxrwxrwx   1 root         nto              31 Apr 05 12:54 Download -> /accounts/1000/shared/downloads
lrwxrwxrwx   1 root         nto              28 Apr 05 12:54 Movies -> /accounts/1000/shared/videos
lrwxrwxrwx   1 root         nto              27 Apr 05 12:54 Music -> /accounts/1000/shared/music
drwxrws---   2 android_root 1000_shared    4096 Feb 21 06:36 Notifications
lrwxrwxrwx   1 root         nto              28 Apr 05 12:54 Pictures -> /accounts/1000/shared/photos
lrwxrwxrwx   1 root         nto              27 Apr 05 12:54 Podcasts -> /accounts/1000/shared/voice
drwxrws---   2 android_root 1000_shared    4096 Feb 21 06:36 Ringtones

Each of the ones with the letter "l" at the start is a symbolic link, with the part after the "->" showing the real folder to which it points. There's also one at DCIM/Camera pointing to the shared/camera folder, and maybe one or two others at lower levels.

[peter9477]

As in... If I check the properties of my Z drive, and it shows me that Total Disk Capacity as 13.96 gb (that's the best I could get on my 16 gb Playbook) and it shows the free space as 4 gb, will it be right for me to infer that it is actually 8 gb space available for me?

No. If you put 4GB in, the free space should shrink by 4GB. On the other hand, the mis-reported "used space" will probably go up by 8GB instead of 4GB, if it's adding up the space apparently consumed by files in calculating this.

[FF22]

Just to clarify some of the confusion around this, it is the folders which have symbolic links, not the individual files.

This has the side effect of making it appear as though there are two places a given "duplicated" file exists but that's not the case. It's actually only in one folder, but there are two different names (basically aliases) for that folder.

Here's the view from the command line:

$ ls -l /accounts/1000/shared/misc/android/
drwxrws---   2 android_root 1000_shared    4096 Feb 21 06:36 Alarms
drwxrws---   3 101481000    1000_shared    4096 Feb 21 07:20 Android
drwxrwsrwx   2 android_root 1000_shared    4096 Feb 21 06:36 DCIM
lrwxrwxrwx   1 root         nto              31 Apr 05 12:54 Download -> /accounts/1000/shared/downloads
lrwxrwxrwx   1 root         nto              28 Apr 05 12:54 Movies -> /accounts/1000/shared/videos
lrwxrwxrwx   1 root         nto              27 Apr 05 12:54 Music -> /accounts/1000/shared/music
drwxrws---   2 android_root 1000_shared    4096 Feb 21 06:36 Notifications
lrwxrwxrwx   1 root         nto              28 Apr 05 12:54 Pictures -> /accounts/1000/shared/photos
lrwxrwxrwx   1 root         nto              27 Apr 05 12:54 Podcasts -> /accounts/1000/shared/voice
drwxrws---   2 android_root 1000_shared    4096 Feb 21 06:36 Ringtones

Each of the ones with the letter "l" at the start is a symbolic link, with the part after the "->" showing the real folder to which it points. There's also one at DCIM/Camera pointing to the shared/camera folder, and maybe one or two others at lower levels.

Peter:

Do you know why the Documents folder (and its files) is not "duplicated" in this scheme?

[peter9477]

F2, no I don't, and I can't even speculate as I know next to nothing about Android. Does it even have a standard place that would correspond to that?

[FF22]

I don't know Android either. The issue has been that some Android apps canNOT find "our" files in the Documents folder. I believe qpdf initially had that problem.

[luqman24]

I noticed this issue too but after "investigating" the problem, im sure theyre not duplicates because my Playbook's capacity is 28.4GB, have 15GB worth of media and apps on it and have 12.5GB free. If the files were duplicated, 30GB would've been used and thats more than the Playbook capacity which wouldnt make any sense.

[AnnaLorf]

The most complete duplicate finder and deleter I have found is "Duplicate Files Deleter".

You can download it from here: Duplicate Files Deleter - tool for finding and deleting duplicate files, delete duplicate files | duplicate files | find duplicate files

I have found that, not only is it one of the fastest duplicate finders/deleters,
but also is by far the most accurate one because of the way it's search engine uses MD5 info.

[pacoman03]

The most complete duplicate finder and deleter I have found is "Duplicate Files Deleter".

You can download it from here: Duplicate Files Deleter - tool for finding and deleting duplicate files, delete duplicate files | duplicate files | find duplicate files

I have found that, not only is it one of the fastest duplicate finders/deleters,
but also is by far the most accurate one because of the way it's search engine uses MD5 info.

Obviously BAD advice from someone who didn't actually read this thread and most likely doesn't even own a playbook. SPAM

[FF22]

The most complete duplicate finder and deleter I have found is "Duplicate Files Deleter".

You can download it from here: Duplicate Files Deleter - tool for finding and deleting duplicate files, delete duplicate files | duplicate files | find duplicate files

I have found that, not only is it one of the fastest duplicate finders/deleters,
but also is by far the most accurate one because of the way it's search engine uses MD5 info.

I'll go a bit further than Pacoman. In this case, the "DUPLICATES" are not really dupes but are virtual files so that Android and its apps can find the real files. If anyone deletes these DUPES, the real files will be erased, too!!!!!!!!! Do NOT use any automation tool.