FWD: Realpath & context sensitive symlinks

[Neal H Walfield]

GNU/Parted uses realpath (and canonicalize_file_name) to get a unique
handle on a given device.

Daniel Jacobowitz <address@hidden> writes:

> On Thu, Sep 27, 2001 at 05:07:20PM -0400, James Antill wrote:
> > Michael Eager <address@hidden> writes:
>> 
>> >                                                       This macro 
>> > substitution only occurs when the file system is following a symlink, 
>> > otherwise the macro is left unmodified.
>> 
>>  Why? Is it done just so you can display it "raw" in ls. I can't think
>> of any other use for the "raw" value and a bunch of things probably
>> rely on stuff being valid from readlink() (just hope nothing changes
>> uid etc. before it uses them).
>
> We've (often and vocally) wondered the same thing :)  It's completely
> POSIX conformant, regrettably; at least as far as I can tell.  The
> value returned from readlink () is not required to be "useful" in any
> real sense.
>
> -- 
> Daniel Jacobowitz                           Carnegie Mellon University
> MontaVista Software                         Debian GNU/Linux Developer