GNU bug report logs - #6960
mv refuses to move a symlink over a hard link to the same file

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Package: coreutils;

Reported by: Matt McCutchen <matt <at> mattmccutchen.net>

Date: Tue, 31 Aug 2010 21:27:01 UTC

Severity: normal

Done: Jim Meyering <jim <at> meyering.net>

Bug is archived. No further changes may be made.

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From: Eric Blake <eblake <at> redhat.com>
To: Jim Meyering <jim <at> meyering.net>
Cc: 6960 <at> debbugs.gnu.org, Anders Kaseorg <andersk <at> MIT.EDU>
Subject: bug#6960: mv refuses to move a symlink over a hard link to the same file
Date: Wed, 04 Jan 2012 14:01:52 -0700

[Message part 1 (text/plain, inline)]
tag 6960 - notabug
reopen 6960
thanks

On 01/04/2012 01:53 PM, Jim Meyering wrote:
>>> mv --backup=numbered is not atomic; it expands to two rename() syscalls,
>>> between which the target doesn’t exist at all.
> 
> Oh!  Amazing that suboptimal behavior has persisted in coreutils for so long.
> 
>> Maybe we should fix that, to make mv --backup use link()/rename() rather
>> than rename()/rename(), so that there is no window where the target
>> doesn't exist.
> 
> No "maybe" about it ;-)

In which case we'd better reopen this bug.

-- 
Eric Blake   eblake <at> redhat.com    +1-919-301-3266
Libvirt virtualization library http://libvirt.org


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This bug report was last modified 13 years and 179 days ago.

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