Subject: Re: Bug? execvp w/dead NFS server (fwd)
To: Brian C. Grayson <bgrayson@ece.utexas.edu>
From: Jim Wise <jimw@numenor.turner.com>
List: current-users
Date: 09/30/1997 09:48:25
On Mon, 29 Sep 1997, Brian C. Grayson wrote:

>   This languished on tech-userlevel for an entire week without a
> peep.  Anyone on current-users know if this is a bug or a
> feature?  Note that, IIRC, many things, like shells, use execvp,
> so the behavior mentioned below can be quite confusing --
> ``/usr/local/bin/acrobat exists, and I can cksum it, so why does
> the shell complain that a resource is temporarily unavailable when
> I try to run it without specifying a full path name, while it
> works if a full path name is specified?''

True.  Though it seems to me that ``Yesterday `foo' meant
`/usr/local/bin/foo' and today it meant `/usr/bin/foo' and silently did
the wrong thing'' is as confusing, and potentially much more harmful...

				Jim Wise
				jim.wise@turner.com