From owner-freebsd-questions  Fri Jan 12 12:19:56 2001
Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org
Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.FreeBSD.org [216.136.204.125])
	by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 9346237B401
	for <freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG>; Fri, 12 Jan 2001 12:19:37 -0800 (PST)
Received: from relay3.inwind.it (relay3.inwind.it [212.141.53.74])
	by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 255B86E3283
	for <freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG>; Fri, 12 Jan 2001 12:19:37 -0800 (PST)
Received: from bartequi.ottodomain.org (62.98.153.172) by relay3.inwind.it (5.1.056)
        id 3A40BF8600499B58; Fri, 12 Jan 2001 20:53:32 +0100
From: Salvo Bartolotta <bartequi@inwind.it>
Date: Fri, 12 Jan 2001 19:55:53 GMT
Message-ID: <20010112.19555300@bartequi.ottodomain.org>
Subject: Re: mv /a/b/c/ .. Bug? 
To: christoph.sold@server.i-clue.de
Cc: freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG
References: <3A5F40FB.BA91E66A@i-clue.de>
X-Mailer: SuperCalifragilis
X-Priority: 3 (Normal)
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
Sender: owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG
Precedence: bulk
X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Original Message <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

On 1/12/01, 6:38:03 PM, Christoph Sold=20
<christoph.sold@server.i-clue.de>
wrote regarding mv /a/b/c/ .. Bug?:


> Hi Folks,

> I just did something unwise:

> # mv /a/b/c/ ..

> Now the c directory is gone completely. Can anybody explain why and
how?


Out of curiosity, I have tried such an operation in... /a/b/c/, where
I had created a very small text file; the move is performed; /a is an
ordinary filesystem.

I have also tried from other (ordinary) paths, just to see if there is
some hidden bug, but I can't find it :-)





On a related note, mv(1) says:

<blockquote>
As the rename(2) call does not work across file systems, mv uses cp(1)
and rm(1) to accomplish the move.  The effect is equivalent to:

           rm -f destination_path && \
           cp -pRP source_file destination && \
           rm -rf source_file
</blockquote>

Is there really **complete** equivalence ?

If I consider issuing 'mv /a/b/c/  ..' from /a/b/c/ itself (which I
actually did, see above), then /a/b/c/ should be removed (!), and the
operation should fail... I seem to understand there is a mechanism
which prevents this kind of scr**** ahem error. Maybe the man page
should be slightly modified ? Should I file a PR ? :-)

Best regards,
Salvo





To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org
with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message