but link is dangerous, as a edit made to one file will then be made to all copies.
For example, If I have two files /home/m/todo.txt and /home/m/backup2025/todo.txt that are identical and you then replace /home/m/todo.txt with a link to /home/m/backup2025/todo.txt and I later edit /home/m/todo.txt then backup copy would also be updated. With apfs clones the backup would not be modified when I updated the file.
Comments
also, worst case you can do this with link features? Which is basically every system under the sun.
but link is dangerous, as a edit made to one file will then be made to all copies.
For example, If I have two files /home/m/todo.txt and /home/m/backup2025/todo.txt that are identical and you then replace /home/m/todo.txt with a link to /home/m/backup2025/todo.txt and I later edit /home/m/todo.txt then backup copy would also be updated. With apfs clones the backup would not be modified when I updated the file.
Link might be desirable for your e-book or mp3 collections. Or .iso images, MAME ROMs, and other files that are unlikely to be changed.
Links are not CoW