GNU bug report logs - #19963
25.0.50; Unable to create a directory with name same as an existing file

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Package: emacs;

Reported by: Kaushal <kaushal.modi <at> gmail.com>

Date: Fri, 27 Feb 2015 19:57:02 UTC

Severity: normal

Tags: notabug

Found in version 25.0.50

Done: Eli Zaretskii <eliz <at> gnu.org>

Bug is archived. No further changes may be made.

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Message #10 received at 19963-done <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Eli Zaretskii <eliz <at> gnu.org>
To: Kaushal <kaushal.modi <at> gmail.com>
Cc: 19963-done <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#19963: 25.0.50;
 Unable to create a directory with name same as an existing file
Date: Fri, 27 Feb 2015 23:48:59 +0200
> From: Kaushal <kaushal.modi <at> gmail.com>
> Date: Fri, 27 Feb 2015 19:56:30 +0000
> 
> If a folder has a file "a.b", I can't create a folder named "a.b" in the same
> parent folder.

As expected.

> Unix allows have a file and a directory with the same name in the same parent
> folder.

Not here, it doesn't:

  eliz <at> fencepost:~/ttttttt$ touch a.b
  eliz <at> fencepost:~/ttttttt$ ls
  a.b
  eliz <at> fencepost:~/ttttttt$ mkdir a.b
  mkdir: cannot create directory `a.b': File exists
  eliz <at> fencepost:~/ttttttt$

A directory is just a special kind of file on most filesystems, and
like a file, it has an entry in its parent directory.  So there cannot
be a file and a directory with the same name, because there can be 2
identical entries in their parent directory.

This is not a bug in Emacs, this is a limitation of the underlying
filesystem to which Emacs heeds.

I'm closing this bug.




This bug report was last modified 10 years and 105 days ago.

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