Subject: Re: Hard links -> symlink
To: Greg Hudson <ghudson@mit.edu>
From: Ted Lemon <mellon@fugue.com>
List: tech-userlevel
Date: 12/17/1995 16:04:17
> I can easily cause cgd's i386 install script to break by asking it to
> create a /usr/sbin partition, for instance.  You or I may not consider
> this a very good way to separate out an installation, but is it
> acceptable that this should fail?

Hm.   Does tar crash?   If so, there's an easy fix - make tar copy the
file if the link() syscall fails.   I think this is better behaviour
than having tar die anyway, although I'm sure somebody will disagree.

> If you and cgd honestly think this is a better answer, I can cause
> LINKS to do this instead, but I get the feeling it's a red herring.

I think that symlinks in installs are a bad thing - just as bad as
hard links.  They can both cause problems if you do something
non-standard.   However, my real feeling about this is that it isn't
sufficiently evil to require any change to be made, and if a change
does need to be made, I'm not at all sure you're making it in the
right place.

However, I have no veto power over what you do - I'm not in core, and
neither is cgd anymore (I don't know what he things about this, in any
case).  I'm just telling you what I would do if I were to run into the
problem.

			       _MelloN_