Which filesystems support symbolic links?

Question

I'm copying a big archive of files from a Linux host to an external USB hard drive, that will then plug into a macOS host. The copy should preserve the archive's many symbolic links (ln -s). What filesystem should I format the external disk as?

Not exFAT, because that doesn't support symlinks.
ext4 can be mounted only read-only, via e.g. ext4fuse.
Something else, that can mount read-write? (Must also be writable by the original Linux host, Ubuntu 16.04.)

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Aug 21 '18 at 16:47

2

HFS+ (Mac OS Extended Journaled)

Why?

Supports Symlinks
Read/write on macOS natively
Easy installation for read/write on Linux

See this for Linux installation tutorial.

answered Aug 21 '18 at 16:47

user7886229

10,009

Yes, but disable journalling so Linux can write to it. – Camille Goudeseune Aug 21 '18 at 18:27
If you format it on Linux with apt-get install gparted hfsprogs; gparted /dev/sdd and choosing HFS+ in the menu, then Linux can read and write. – Camille Goudeseune Aug 21 '18 at 18:55

Which filesystems support symbolic links?

1 Answers1

HFS+ (Mac OS Extended Journaled)