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Re: link(2) on a symlink to a directory fails



Emmanuel Dreyfus <manu%netbsd.org@localhost> writes:

> I was trying to track down a bug in glusterfs on NetBSD and encountered a
> behavior difference between NetBSD and Linux. NetBSD will refuse (EPERM)
> to link(2) on a symlink to a directory, while Linux is fine with such
> an operation (but fails to link(2) directly to a directory, just like
> NetBSD). 
>
> A simple case showing the difference is below. Anyone has an opinion 
> about this? Who is standard compliant, and does it make sense to "fix"
> our link(2) to match Linux? 
>
> $ cd /tmp 
> $ mkdir i386
> $ ln -s i386 inst.xxx
> $ ln inst.xxx machine
> ln: machine: Operation not permitted
> $ uname
> NetBSD
>
> $  mkdir i386
> $ ln -s i386 inst.xxx
> $ ln inst.xxx machine
> $ ls -ld machine
> lrwxrwxrwx  2 manu manu 4 jui 29 10:03 machine -> i386
> $ uname
> Linux

Posix says:

  http://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/009695399/functions/link.html

which gives an implementation-dependent out.  NetBSD appears to be
compliant, and to follow the default/sane interpretation.  Also, from
POSIX, it seems that link on anything other than a regular file is
irregular (except a symlink, where the link is made on the target, no
different than any other operation).

Also, NetBSD ln makes a link to the target of the symlink, which is what
I would expect.

$ touch foo
$ ln -s foo bar
$ ln bar baz
$ ls -l foo bar baz
lrwxr-xr-x  1 gdt  ir  3 Jul 29 07:03 bar -> foo
-rw-r--r--  2 gdt  ir  0 Jul 29 07:03 baz
-rw-r--r--  2 gdt  ir  0 Jul 29 07:03 foo
$ uname
NetBSD

On Linux, is a hard link to the symlink created for link on any symlink?
Or is it to the file if the target is not a directory?

; $PWD and /tmp are on ffs and tmpfs
$ touch /tmp/foo
$ ln -s /tmp/foo bar
$ ln bar baz
ln: baz: Cross-device link


What filesystem on Linux?


Perhaps someone could check on solaris.

All in all it seems like a bug for glusterfs to be using link this way.

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