GNU bug report logs - #28079
find -type l -xtype and recursive symbolic links

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From: Poor Yorick <org.gnu.bug-coreutils <at> pooryorick.com>
To: 28079 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: bug#28079: find -type l -xtype and recursive symbolic links
Date: Sun, 13 Aug 2017 14:06:19 +0300

When a find expression includes both the -type and -xtype options and a
symbolic link that points to itself is encountered (a recursive 
symlink),
find fails with the error message, "Too many levels of symbolic links".

the -L option combined with the -type option also triggers the error:

    find -L . -type l

One reason to use both -type and -xtype is to skip broken symbolic 
links:

    -type l -not -xtype l

It would be useful in this case for a symbolic link that points to 
itself to be
considered broken by failing the "-xtype l" test.  If the bug was
fixed without also making this adjustment, there would be no way to 
exclude
symbolic links that point to themselves.  One alternative would be to 
introduce
a new type specifically for a symbolic link that points to itself.  
Another
alternative would be to introduce some sort of meta option to pass 
information
about the current file to an option.  Maybe it would look like this:

    -meta -lname name


-- 
Yorick

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