From owner-freebsd-current@FreeBSD.ORG  Tue Jun  9 09:03:38 2009
Return-Path: <owner-freebsd-current@FreeBSD.ORG>
Delivered-To: freebsd-current@freebsd.org
Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34])
	by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 02C58106566B
	for <freebsd-current@freebsd.org>; Tue,  9 Jun 2009 09:03:38 +0000 (UTC)
	(envelope-from freebsd-current@m.gmane.org)
Received: from ciao.gmane.org (main.gmane.org [80.91.229.2])
	by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id B1F928FC1A
	for <freebsd-current@freebsd.org>; Tue,  9 Jun 2009 09:03:37 +0000 (UTC)
	(envelope-from freebsd-current@m.gmane.org)
Received: from list by ciao.gmane.org with local (Exim 4.43)
	id 1MDxF0-0003Ba-Cw
	for freebsd-current@freebsd.org; Tue, 09 Jun 2009 09:03:34 +0000
Received: from lara.cc.fer.hr ([161.53.72.113])
	by main.gmane.org with esmtp (Gmexim 0.1 (Debian))
	id 1AlnuQ-0007hv-00
	for <freebsd-current@freebsd.org>; Tue, 09 Jun 2009 09:03:34 +0000
Received: from ivoras by lara.cc.fer.hr with local (Gmexim 0.1 (Debian))
	id 1AlnuQ-0007hv-00
	for <freebsd-current@freebsd.org>; Tue, 09 Jun 2009 09:03:34 +0000
X-Injected-Via-Gmane: http://gmane.org/
To: freebsd-current@freebsd.org
From: Ivan Voras <ivoras@freebsd.org>
Date: Tue, 09 Jun 2009 11:03:49 +0200
Lines: 30
Message-ID: <h0l8gb$57r$1@ger.gmane.org>
References: <B7437F9F-A8BF-4F49-AAE4-9B93B62B6223@exscape.org>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8
Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
X-Complaints-To: usenet@ger.gmane.org
X-Gmane-NNTP-Posting-Host: lara.cc.fer.hr
User-Agent: Thunderbird 2.0.0.21 (X11/20090409)
In-Reply-To: <B7437F9F-A8BF-4F49-AAE4-9B93B62B6223@exscape.org>
Sender: news <news@ger.gmane.org>
Subject: Re: FS utils treates directories as files?
X-BeenThere: freebsd-current@freebsd.org
X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5
Precedence: list
List-Id: Discussions about the use of FreeBSD-current
	<freebsd-current.freebsd.org>
List-Unsubscribe: <http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-current>, 
	<mailto:freebsd-current-request@freebsd.org?subject=unsubscribe>
List-Archive: <http://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-current>
List-Post: <mailto:freebsd-current@freebsd.org>
List-Help: <mailto:freebsd-current-request@freebsd.org?subject=help>
List-Subscribe: <http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-current>,
	<mailto:freebsd-current-request@freebsd.org?subject=subscribe>
X-List-Received-Date: Tue, 09 Jun 2009 09:03:38 -0000

Thomas Backman wrote:
> FreeBSD 8.0-CURRENT r193521 (Jun 5), bash:
> [root@chaos /usr/ports]# file /
> /: directory
> [root@chaos /usr/ports]# cat /
> =EF=BF=BDg=EF=BF=BD=EF=BF=BD=3D[root@chaos /usr/ports]#
> [root@chaos /usr/ports]# cat /usr/ports/mail
> =EF=BF=BD

This is the traditional behaviour because yes, directories are just
simply ordinary files with a special bit set to distinguish them. Other
systems might have modified "cat" to check if directories are files but
it's not standard.

You can easily check this yourself. The following small program should
work on every unix-ish system:

#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <sys/fcntl.h>

int main() {
	int fd, i;
	char buf[512];
=09
	fd =3D open(".", O_RDONLY);
	read(fd, buf, 512);
	for (i =3D 0; i < 512; i++)
		printf("%4d ", buf[i]);
}