Subject: Re: link(1) - when did it disappear?
To: None <tech-userlevel@netbsd.org>
From: Lucio De Re <lucio@cackle.proxima.alt.za>
List: tech-userlevel
Date: 07/18/1999 11:00:17
On Sun, Jul 18, 1999 at 06:50:38PM +1000, Giles Lean wrote:
> 
> On Sun, 18 Jul 1999 10:37:38 +0200  Lucio De Re wrote:
> 
> > I must confess I have never seen it in NetBSD, but my Sys V Rel 3.1 system
> > and all Sys Vs I've come across since included link(1) for the superuser to
> > create hard links to directories.
> 
> Historically on BSD systems ln(1) would do this if the user was
> superuser.  Not all filesystems now support links to directories.
> This behaviour is more or less deprecated.
> 
I'm pretty sure it doesn't do this anymore, but I have yet to look at the
sources.  Man pages and behaviour experiments have given me little hope :-)

> There are debates from time to time about whether it should be allowed
> or not; sufficiently often the answer is "no" that I no longer expect
> this functionality to be supplied on a Unix-like system.  This is a
> round about way of saying I've no idea what NetBSD currently does. :-)
> 
I was hoping I'd get away without looking up the mailing list archives.

Well, I think one of NetBSD's good points is its liberal approach: "Give
them enough rope..." type thing.  This is a piece of rope I really want
quite badly.

So where are the policy makers on this Sunday morning/Saturday night?

++L