Subject: Re: bug#21130: test fail: 'tests/ls/stat-failed'

From: Paul Eggert <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 25 Jul 2015 08:05:52 -0700

Pádraig Brady wrote:
>> On 24/07/15 22:46, Assaf Gordon wrote:
>>> If I understand correctly,
>>> The test creates a symlink to a directory then removes execute permissions:
>>>      mkdir d
>>>      ln -s / d/s
>>>      chmod 600 d
>>>
>>> Then tries to dereference it:
>>>       $ ls -Log d
>>>       ls: cannot access d/s: Permission denied
>>>       total 0
>>>       d????????? ? ?            ? s

> Another possibility might be that the chmod(1) and stat(2) are racy
> thus allowing the stat() to succeed? If that was the case then
> a stat d/s && skip_ ... would avoid the false failure?

Sorry, I don't understand the scenario here.  If the stat succeeds, why would ls 
output '????'?  The '????' means that the stat failed.