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From: Gabor Zahemszky <zgabor@CoDe.hu>
Message-Id: <199605221133.LAA01574@CoDe.CoDe.hu>
Subject: S_ISFIFO === S_ISSOCK
To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org
Date: Wed, 22 May 1996 11:33:15 +0000 (GMT)
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Hi!

I've found, that in 2.1.0R (from WC CD), in /usr/include/sys/stat.h, the macros
S_ISFIFO and S_ISSOCK are generate the same (as it says in the comment).
It's not so good, eg. the tar and cpio (from the distribution, they are
the GNU version), both cannot save a socket.  Perfectly, they can save,
but save as a pipe.  I tried it in some Unices, and all of them (if they have
this type of file), make a difference between them.  So, what's the reason,
that macro defined such a non-standard (means, unusable) way.
(I have to dig into the source of tar/cpio, to find it out, why are they
say a saved socket, that's a pipe.  - Yes, I know, that saving a pipe, or
saving a socket is not a very good practice, but saving them is only one
of the problems.)  Eg, if I would like to write a `ls', that code doesn't
work:
if ( S_ISFIFO( f ) ) {
	printf( "fifo" );
	}
else if (S_ISSOCK( f ) ) {
	printf( "socket" );
	}
...
Of course, it always says, that's a pipe, and never says, socket.

-- 
	Gabor Zahemszky <zgabor@CoDe.hu>

-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-
Earth is the cradle of human sense, but you can't stay in the cradle forever.
						Tsiolkovsky