File-system objects

File-system objects in the VOB database represent files, directories, and VOB symbolic links.

A VOB database supports four types of file-system objects:

File element
An object with a version tree, consisting of branches and versions. Each version of a file element has file system data: a sequence of bytes. Certain element types constrain the nature of the versions’ file-system data; for example, versions of elements whose type is text_file must contain text lines, not binary data.
Directory element
An object with a version tree, consisting of branches and versions. Each version of a directory element catalogs a set of file elements, directory elements (subdirectories), and VOB symbolic and hard links.
VOB symbolic link
An object that contains a text string. On systems running Linux or the UNIX system, this string is interpreted by standard commands in the same way as an operating system symbolic link.
VOB hard link
An additional name for an element that already exists in a version of the current directory.