Hi!
I’m pretty new to sonarr and I can’t get one thing straight. For an example when a new episode of a series is released sonarr downloads one copy in a folder of that series and one copy without a folder. So I always get two copies of a new released show. I’m guessing this is some setting that I missed?
Assuming torrents since only seeding torrents are copied (or hardlinked), this is expected.
I have just a quick question on this topic too @markus101
when the torrent finishes seeding in your client (hits a seed ratio set in your client) Sonarr can remove the torrent from your client and ask it to delete the previously seeding files on disk, this will happen automatically if the Remove option is enabled under Completed Download Handling options.
So here is an example:
For the case 1, the file will be removed from my client and my copy will remains in my TVShows folder when seed criteria will be reached.
For the case 2, what will happens when the seed criteria will be reached?
Thanks for your help, I’m trying to understand this feature to get the best of it.
You’re mixing up softlinks (symlinks) and hardlinks. A symlink only has one actual file and pointers to that file, a hardlink doesn’t have one file and pointers to it, they are separate files in their own way and can be renamed independently at any time. A file on disk has one or more hardlinks to it, when all the hardlinks are deleted the file becomes inaccessible, without recoverying it, which is how “undelete” software works (recovers the content thats still on disk, but doesn’t have any links to it).
In your example the torrent is deleted and the hardlink is unaffected.
Ok. So is there a way to copy and rename a file with Sonarr AND let a link in the download folder to continue seeding without having double size?
That’s exactly what the hardlink does: The same file appears to be a real file in both locations/names, but only occurs once on the disk.
Yes, but the “Real” will remains only where the last link stays?
And if inside deluge I select “Delete torrent with data” it will delete only the link? 
Think of a hard link as two copies of a file that only consume the disk space once. If you delete either one of those the other is untouched, you could move the file (on the same drive) and the disk space wouldn’t increase and both files still work. So deleting it from deluge, Sonarr or a file browser (Finder, Windows Explorer, etc) only affects one copy of the file.
If you need another way to think about this, imagine the file is a building:
Softlinking or symlinking (Windows “shortcut” or OS X “alias” also use the same kind of concept) is like putting up a signpost to the building’s entrance: There’s only one building so if it closes, any signposts become useless.
Hardlinking is like opening another entrance to the building: There’s only one building, but closing an entrance doesn’t effect any other entrances.
OK, so I guess I will do some test so…
And it is working on all type of partition?
Thanks guys!
The partition type is not relevant. Is the file system. Fat32 doesn’t support hardlinks for example, also hardlinks cannot transverse to another filesystem (another hard drive or block device).
Oh. So we can only have links in the same filesystem?
A link on a raspbian and a linux on a NAS (file the file) will not be possible?
If you mean a network mount, no. Is a different filesystem.
If you mean hardlink I’ve already gave you the answer.
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