Date: Mon, 28 Apr 1997 22:15:42 +1000 From: Bruce Evans <bde@zeta.org.au> To: davidn@labs.usn.blaze.net.au, freebsd-bugs@hub.freebsd.org Subject: Re: bin/3399: mv of symbolic link can move directory instead of link Message-ID: <199704281215.WAA17698@godzilla.zeta.org.au>
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> > If a symbolic link is entered with a trailing /, the directory it
> > references instead of the link is moved. This could cause loss of
> > data, if someone assumes that the original directory was not affected.
>
> Wrong assumption. :-)
>
> IMHO this a a feature, not a bug. Many programs assume you wish to
> look "through" a symlink if you add the trailing slash. /bin/ls, for
> example. mv's behaviour therefore would seem to be expected.
It is a feature (the trailing slash says to follow the link), but many
systems do it differently. FreeBSD itself does rmdir differently -
rmdir("symlink/") fails although rename("symlink/", "newname") renames
the direcory pointed to by "symlink" to "newname". Note that you have
to use rename(2) instead of mv(1) to test this. mv may rewrite some of
the names.
Bruce
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