Help? how-to create symbolic links to keep "Christmas" photos together?

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joebelfiore
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Help? how-to create symbolic links to keep "Christmas" photos together?

Post by joebelfiore »

Hey all ... Linux newbie who could use help with some specific directions (or warning against this idea) for how to accomplish the following. My device is TS-251+ running QTS 5.0.1.2194.

Scenario: I have a RAID volume with two drives, series of shared folders ("Photos", "Videos", etc.). My Photos folder/share is organized by year... like this:

2018
... folder 1
... folder 2
... xmas photos

2019
... folder 1
... folder 2
... xmas photos

WHAT I WANT: I'd like to ALSO create a 'top level folder' called "Christmas" which will have symbolic links to the Xmas photos folder from each year... LIKE THIS:

Xmas (all photos)
... 2018 <-- symbolic link
... 2019 <-- symbolic link

I want to use this so that I can make a screensaver show "all the xmas photos" .. without making a COPY of the images, so I can modify them, change their ratings, etc. as they are displayed -- in the original form.

I've read a few threads on this and I *think* a linux symbolic link will work ... but I haven't found enough info on how to create these (or if this is "safe"). I have seen people post "use SSH in linux" .. but i don't know how to setup an SSH command prompt...

Any specific help or advice? thanks!
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Moogle Stiltzkin
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Re: Help? how-to create symbolic links to keep "Christmas" photos together?

Post by Moogle Stiltzkin »

the photo station qpkg app, you can create virtual folders.

so you don't have to physically move the photos to the same folder. but you can create a place holder folder to put pictures from different locations into it.

i believe it's called smart albums
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joebelfiore
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Re: Help? how-to create symbolic links to keep "Christmas" photos together?

Post by joebelfiore »

This doesn't seem to be a solution to the problem.

What I need is a way to have an actual "native" virtual folder -- like a Linux symbolic link or a Windows junction point -- which will look to ordinary Windows PCs and all the apps running on them like a real folder. I have a screensaver app running on 3 PCs in my house .. I want to point it to the "Xmas (all photos)" virtual folder. This virtual folder needs to be discoverable from a windows file share .. like this:

\\QNAPserver\photos\Holidays\Xmas (all photos)

Then I can use lots of different Windows apps on that collection of photos even though they are also stored in separate year-based folders on the server.
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dolbyman
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Re: Help? how-to create symbolic links to keep "Christmas" photos together?

Post by dolbyman »

You can easily create symbolic links on the NAS via a GUI driven app like WinSCP

https://winscp.net/eng/docs/task_link
joebelfiore
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Re: Help? how-to create symbolic links to keep "Christmas" photos together?

Post by joebelfiore »

THANK YOU, @dolbyman! I'm getting close! Could use a tiny bit more help if you're expert in this and don't mind.

I have WinSCP installed and I'm now trying to figure out which protocol will work for creating links. I have WebDAV *working* with WinSCP ... but according to the docs it doesn't support creating links. The other default protocols that WinSCP supports don't seem to be enabled by default on QNAP (eg. I can't find any settings to enable SCP or SFTP on the NAS) ... and I *have* installed the QuFTP service as an add-on app but haven't figured out how to get WinSCP to connect to it yet.

ANy advice on which protocol I should be working to get setup with this? (and of course my hope at the end of this is that the symbolic/hard link will work for Windows PCs connecting via Windows networking...)

thanks!
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dolbyman
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Re: Help? how-to create symbolic links to keep "Christmas" photos together?

Post by dolbyman »

SFTP should just work with the default SSH client, and that should be enabled by default
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Re: Help? how-to create symbolic links to keep "Christmas" photos together?

Post by dosborne »

You can also just use the "ln" command from a SSH prompt :) no need for winscp.
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Re: Help? how-to create symbolic links to keep "Christmas" photos together?

Post by dolbyman »

well yes..but a GUI makes it easier to use..even though less educational
joebelfiore
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Re: Help? how-to create symbolic links to keep "Christmas" photos together?

Post by joebelfiore »

WinSCP + SSH protocol did the trick. THANK YOU! I've got it working exactly the way I was hoping.

The thing that took just a tiny bit of tinkering was to recognize that the default port that QNAP used for SSH was different than the default port set in WinSCP.

Thank you again!
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