GNU bug report logs - #41001
mkdir: cannot create directory ‘test’: File exists

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From: Paul Eggert <eggert <at> cs.ucla.edu>
To: Jonny Grant <jg <at> jguk.org>
Cc: 41001 <at> debbugs.gnu.org, Eric Blake <eblake <at> redhat.com>
Subject: bug#41001: mkdir: cannot create directory ‘test’: File exists
Date: Sat, 2 May 2020 16:13:03 -0700

On 5/2/20 3:41 PM, Jonny Grant wrote:
> Is a more accurate strerror considered unreliable?
> 
> Current:
> mkdir: cannot create directory ‘test’: File exists
> 
> Proposed:
> mkdir: cannot create directory ‘test’: Is a directory

I don't understand this comment. As I understand it you're proposing a change to
the mkdir command not a change to the strerror library function, and the change
you're proposing would introduce a race condition to the mkdir command.

A better fix would be to change the mkdir system call so that it sets errno to
EISDIR in this situation. This would fix not only the mkdir utility, but also
lots of other programs; and it wouldn't introduce a race condition. So if you're
interested in getting the problem fixed, I suggest that you propose such a
change to the Linux kernel developers.

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