Deduplication of mod files across game instances

[10-days-till-xmas]

Problem

Having multiple ksp instances can easily go into the 10s of GB, even surpassing 100 for some

Suggestion

Having a folder that contains every mod and then placing hard links in the GameData folder. Symbolic links work too but would be slower. It can be an option since some people wouldn’t want to give ckan administrator permissions, or wouldn’t understand how hard links work and be confused as a result when messing with the mods.

Alternatives

No response

Additional context

No response

[10-days-till-xmas]

Ah thanks very much!! This'll save me so much storage 🙏

[10-days-till-xmas]

Wouldn't hard links be faster though since the link wouldn't have to be resolved?

[SofieBrink]

Duplicate of #4087

I believe OP wants mod files to be symbolic linked / hard linked into instances’ gamedata directories too, not just the stock files. Making this not actually be a duplicate of that issue.

[10-days-till-xmas]

Duplicate of #4087

I believe OP wants mod files to be symbolic linked / hard linked into instances’ gamedata directories too, not just the stock files. Making this not actually be a duplicate of that issue.

Oh I misread the issue then, yeah this was what I wanted too

[HebaruSan]

Oh OK; in that case, yes, this is a different suggestion.
I need to consider whether that idea is possible to implement before re-opening it, though. There are reasons we focused on the files that are guaranteed to be identical across instances.

[HebaruSan]

Alright, I can't say for sure that this is doable, but it also doesn't look impossible yet.
Re-opening for further investigation later.