How Softimage Uses the linktab.ini File

You must define a linktab.ini file on both the Windows side and the Linux side. The linktab file is used to translate paths only when the scene is read. So even if you have a linktab.ini on the Windows side, you'll also need one on the Linux side to be able to read scenes written by Windows.

When Softimage finds a linktab.ini file, it uses it to ensure that scenes will remain compatible across platforms in this way:

When Softimage is launched it looks for the linktab.ini file in the directory specified by the SI_LINKTAB_LOCATION environment variable
If it finds the file, it builds an internal table of path translation (Windows to Linux and Linux to Windows).

Internally, Softimage builds the list of all network drives currently connected to the Windows machine as well as the associated mount point. This list in conjunction with the linktab.ini file provides the necessary information to translate paths from and to Linux.

When...	Softimage translates path references in this way...
Loading a scene	Linux paths are translated (if possible) to the equivalent mount point and then to the corresponding network drive letter. UNC references are translated to the corresponding network drive letter
Saving a scene	Network drive letters are translated to the given UNC mount point and then to the corresponding Linux path (if an entry is found in the linktab.ini table)

When...

Softimage translates path references in this way...

Loading a scene

Linux paths are translated (if possible) to the equivalent mount point and then to the corresponding network drive letter.

UNC references are translated to the corresponding network drive letter

Saving a scene

Network drive letters are translated to the given UNC mount point and then to the corresponding Linux path (if an entry is found in the linktab.ini table)

Example: using the linktab.ini file to translate path references

For example, user1 and user2's accounts on Linux are /home/user1 and /home/user2 which are in fact a logical link to /mnt1/allusers/user1 and /mnt1/allusers/user2.

On the Windows machine, a network drive is connected (using NFS) to lin1:/mnt1/allusers and drive h:.

	lin1:/mnt1/allusers!user1 /home/user1
	lin1:/mnt1/allusers!user2 /home/user2
A	lin2:/usr/people/user3 /usr/people/user3
B	\pc_server1\share_location /pc_server1

The first path argument of each line is the Windows path while the second path argument on each line is the Linux equivalent.

A	This line indicates that this path (/usr/people/user3) comes from machine lin2 at the same location
B	This line indicates that on Linux machines, references to files located on the pc_server1 remote file server should be kept using the Linux path (/pc_server1)

When Softimage encounters the path /home/user1/... when loading a scene, it translates it to h:/user1/... which is the equivalent Windows path. In this example, the true mount point is lin1:/mnt1/allusers and the exclamation mark indicates that only that portion of the path should be looked up in the current list of NFS network drive.

When saving the scene, the path will be re-translated to the proper Linux path /home/user1/... which allows scenes to remain accessible from both platforms.