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Date: Mon, 18 Jun 2001 10:46:27 -0700 (PDT)
From: Matt Dillon <dillon@earth.backplane.com>
Message-Id: <200106181746.f5IHkRE16410@earth.backplane.com>
To: Garrett Wollman <wollman@khavrinen.lcs.mit.edu>
Cc: "Andrey A. Chernov" <ache@nagual.pp.ru>, current@FreeBSD.ORG,
	FreeBSD-standards@bostonradio.org
Subject: Re: Ok, try this patch. (was Re: symlink(2) [Was: Re: tcsh.cat])
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:<<On Mon, 18 Jun 2001 21:35:17 +0400, "Andrey A. Chernov" <ache@nagual.pp.ru> said:
:
:>> > 	./foo/		.//
:>> > 	./foo/bar	.//bar
:>> 
:>> No, because the ``resulting filename'' begins with a slash.
:
:> It seems resulting filename (pathname?) begins with "./" (not a slash).
:
:No, it doesn't.  The ``resulting filename'' is "/" in the first case,
:and "/bar" in the second case.  Both begin with a slash, and so are
:resolved relative to the root.  There is no "./" involved anywhere in
:the process.
:
:The value of the symbolic link is not somehow inserted into the path
:being resolved.  Once a symbolic link is encountered, pathname
:resolution *starts over* with the last directory searched in the old
:path used as the current working directory.
:
:-GAWollman

    Right, and since "" is an illegal path name...

    In anycase, I can't imagine that POSIX actually intended null symlinks
    to act in any particular way, and obviously they are cause for a great
    deal of confusion, and I don't know a single person who uses a null
    symlink on purpose.  So I say we simply disallow them, hence the patch.
    If someone wants a symlink to point to / they can make it point to "/".
    If someone wants a symlink to point to the current directory they can
    make it point to ".".

						-Matt

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