Re: Adding linux_link(2) system call, second round

[Joerg Sonnenberger <joerg%britannica.bec.de@localhost>]

On Sun, Jul 31, 2011 at 07:49:20PM +0200, Emmanuel Dreyfus wrote:
> Both behaviors are standard compliant, since SUSv2 says nothing about
> resolving symlinks or not. I found at least one program (glusterfs),
> which assumes the Linux behavior, and is a real pain to fix on NetBSD
> because of that.

The standard is explicitly open on this to allow filesystems that
implement symlinks without using inodes. Essentially, it is valid to
store a symlink inside the directory entry itself. That's one of the
reasons why no change semantic is provided either.

Given the very small number of programs that manage to mess up the
symlink usage, I'm kind of opposed to providing another system call just
as work around for them. Besides, NetBSD isn't the only implementation
following this strategy...

Joerg