Subject: Re: funlink() for fun!
To: NetBSD Kernel Technical Discussion List <tech-kern@NetBSD.org>
From: der Mouse <mouse@Rodents.Montreal.QC.CA>
List: tech-kern
Date: 07/14/2003 18:00:31
>> Greg, file descriptors are not associated with pathnames.  There is
>> no "proper directory entry".
> How is it that suddenly you have absolutely no imagination at all?
> File descriptors are associated with files.
> Filenames are associated with files.

Yes.  Therefore, a file descriptor can in principle be mapped to a set
of pathnames.  (And a pathname can in principle be mapped to a set of
file descriptors.)

You are trying to add a way to go from a file descriptor to one
particular member of that set of pathnames.  (And then do something
with it, but the hard part is that mapping.  Depending on which message
I read, either you're willing to error out unless the set has only one
element, or you want a rather ill-defined member of the set, one
somehow related to how the file descriptor was obtained.)

This is possible to do.  It is also a major philosophical shift, with
the corresponding design shift that implies.  It may be an interesting
thing to consider when designing a new OS; it is of no particular value
for an existing one with an existing commitment to the present design
(and the philosophy behind it).

Hint: this list is about the latter.

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