Some programs, including `gzip' and `e2compress', refuse to operate on files with multiple links (unless you specify the `--force' option or some such).
This section describes what `multiple links' are, some of their properties, why such programs dislike operating on such files, and how to identify a file with multiple links.
See section How to identify a file with multiple links, if you just want to know how to tell from `ls -li' output whether a file has one or multiple links.
Go to the first, previous, next, last section, table of contents.