[ On Monday, September 25, 2000 at 15:02:25 (+0200), Lucio De Re wrote: ]
> Subject: Re: Linux emulation and mkdir with trailing /
>
> On Mon, Sep 25, 2000 at 12:54:45PM +0200, Alan Barrett wrote:
> > 
> > I don't know what the standards say, or what traditional behaviour was.
> > But if I ever type a name with a trailing slash, then I intend that name
> > to be interpreted as a directory, and I expect to get an error if it
> > is a (non-directory) file.  For example, if foo exists as a file and I
> > say "mv foo bar/", then I want to get an error if bar does not already
> > exist as a directory; I certainly don't want to end up with bar as a
> > file.  Similarly, if I type "install myprogram /usr/local/bin/" but
> > /usr/local/bin does not exist, then I want an error message, I don't
> > want to end up with /usr/local/bin as an executable program.
> > 
> I agree entirely with you, it is the most natural and reasonable way
> to deal with it (and Windows doesn't come near it, in case you
> wonder).  But different flavours of Unix _do_ behave peculiarly on
> this score: I have seen directories being converted to files and worse
> because of the different options with trailing slashes.

You guys are apparently forgetting:  directories *ARE* files in Unix!

-- 
							Greg A. Woods

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