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Date: Mon, 09 Apr 2007 08:38:22 -0700
From: Tim Kientzle <kientzle@freebsd.org>
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Cc: Ulrich Spoerlein <uspoerlein@gmail.com>
Subject: Re: 'opaque' flag?
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Tim Kientzle wrote:
> Does anyone understand the semantics of the 'opaque' flag?
> 
> I'm trying to understand an issue with packages built
> on union file systems.  It appears the 'opaque' flag
> is set on some symlinks, which the package tools then
> archive.  The archived flag is somehow interfering with
> later installation of the package.
> 
> I've read McKusick's paper on unionfs which explains
> the opaque flag for directories created on a unionfs,
> but I have a bunch of questions:
>   * Why is it appearing on symlinks?
>   * How could the opaque flag interfere with package installs?
>   * Should bsdtar ignore opaque flags?

Okay, I now understand the answer to the second question:
there's a bug in libarchive restoring symlinks with flags.
I'll fix that shortly.

The other two questions still puzzle me.

Tim