Re: zero-length symlinks

[Alan Barrett <apb%cequrux.com@localhost>]

On Fri, 01 Nov 2013, David Holland wrote:
> rmind@ points out that it's possible to create zero-length 
> symlinks.  As zero-length symlinks aren't sensible, this 
> should probably be prohibited. Does anyone see any reason they 
> shouldn't be?

Symlink names should satisfy all the rules for file system object 
names, so "" should not be allowed.

Symlink targets are just strings.  They are usually used to store 
path names, but they can also be used to store arbitrary strings 
that can be read via readlink(2).  NetBSD's malloc implementation 
uses /etc/malloc.conf in this way, and I don't see a reason to 
prohibit it from using "".

POSIX says "The string pointed to by path1 shall be treated only 
as a character string and shall not be validated as a pathname." 
<http://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/9699919799/functions/symlink.html>

--apb (Alan Barrett)