GNU bug report logs - #13447
ln "" foo gives misleading error message

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Message #51 received at 13447 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Pádraig Brady <P <at> draigBrady.com>
To: Jim Meyering <jim <at> meyering.net>
Cc: 13447 <at> debbugs.gnu.org, Ken Irving <ken.irving <at> alaska.edu>
Subject: Re: bug#13447: ln "" foo gives misleading error message
Date: Thu, 17 Jan 2013 13:09:20 +0000

[Message part 1 (text/plain, inline)]

On 01/15/2013 02:27 PM, Jim Meyering wrote:
> Pádraig Brady wrote:
> ...
>>> I could go either way.
>>> There is precedent, but it's such a corner case,
>>> it may not be worth the added code.
>>
>> given the confusion above, it might be worth the
>> clarification error message.
>
> Yes, I've demonstrated that rather well ;-)

Note to add the error robustly,
we'd have to check that ENOENT wasn't
in fact being generated for the link name.
That would involve stat()s and TOCTOU issues.

This Linux misinterpretation of POSIX has
been present for a long time as can be seen by
searching for sys_symlink in:

  http://repo.or.cz/w/davej-history.git/blame/HEAD:/fs/namei.c

I sent the attached path to the kernel list,
to see can we address it directly there.

thanks,
Pádraig.

[symlink-empty.diff (text/x-patch, attachment)]

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