Re:Create space-saving clones on macOS with Python
by zahlman on Tuesday August 05, 2025 @06:00PM
(#44804967)
> Although cloned files share data, they’re independent – you can edit one copy without affecting the other (unlike symlinks or hard links). APFS uses a technique called copy-on-write to store the data efficiently on disk – the cloned files continue to share any pieces they have in common.
... So, reflinks?
... It seems so. https://pypi.org/project/reflink/ claims to support this for APFS, specifically by using `clonefile`.