Date: 28 Mar 2002 18:24:58 -0800 From: "Gary W. Swearingen" <swear@blarg.net> To: FreeBSD-gnats-submit@FreeBSD.org Subject: docs/36449: symlink(7) manual doesn't mention trailing slash, etc. Message-ID: <cclmccglfp.mcc@localhost.localdomain>
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>Number: 36449
>Category: docs
>Synopsis: symlink(7) manual doesn't mention trailing slash, etc.
>Confidential: no
>Severity: non-critical
>Priority: low
>Responsible: freebsd-doc
>State: open
>Quarter:
>Keywords:
>Date-Required:
>Class: doc-bug
>Submitter-Id: current-users
>Arrival-Date: Thu Mar 28 18:30:01 PST 2002
>Closed-Date:
>Last-Modified:
>Originator: Gary W. Swearingen
>Release: FreeBSD 4.5-STABLE i386
>Organization:
none
>Environment:
n/a
================
>Description:
The symlink(7) manual doesn't mention how many/most/all commands handle
symbolic link arguments which have trailing slashes. And the "Commands
not traversing ..." section omits rule-violators "chown/chmod/chgrp"
which also do not follow symlinks without a trailing slash. (Note that
some commands, like "cat" (and presumably all others) do follow
symlinks without a trailing slash.)
================
>How-To-Repeat:
n/a
================
>Fix:
This probably requires long study and research to confidently fix
this manual. Probably an interim fix should just add something about
the three other rule-violators and a warning (in it's own section or
near the beginning of the description section) something like this:
The handling of symbolic links cannot easily be described for all
cases, but in most cases, referring to a symbolic link by using its
name followed immediately by one or more slashes ("/") will cause
the system to treat it as the name of the thing the symbolic link
refers to. This "following of the link" goes no further if the
thing referred to is also a symbolic link. Note that when other
parts of this file refer to "symbolic links named as command
arguments", they only refer to such links which do not have trailing
slashes.
If nothing else can be done soon, the manual should say:
This manual is untrustworthy, especially regarding symbolic links
named with trailing slashes which can cause suprising behavior.
>Release-Note:
>Audit-Trail:
>Unformatted:
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