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

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Message #57 received at 13447 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Jim Meyering <jim <at> meyering.net>
To: Pádraig Brady <P <at> draigBrady.com>
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 17:44:06 +0100

Pádraig Brady wrote:
> 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.

Nice follow-up.  Thanks!

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