Comment by drdexebtjl

You're about to be very surprised!

  echo old > a
  ln a b
  echo new > a  
  cat a b                   # prints "new" and "new"

Some programs like GNU sed [1] do create new inodes, but that is a property of the application, not the filesystem:

  echo old > a
  ln a b
  sed -i 'c new' a
  cat a b                   # prints "new" and "old"

With reflinks in a CoW filesystem the inodes are different from the start, but share the same underlying blocks:

  echo old > a
  cp --reflink=always a b
  ls -i a b                 # prints different inodes
  echo new > a
  cat a b                   # prints "new" and "old"

[1] https://www.gnu.org/software/sed/manual/html_node/Command_00...