From: Denys Vlasenko <vda.linux@googlemail.com>
To: Eric Blake <eblake@redhat.com>
Cc: "Pádraig Brady" <P@draigbrady.com>, Coreutils <coreutils@gnu.org>,
linux-kernel <linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org>,
"Christian Engelmayer" <christian.engelmayer@frequentis.com>,
"Al Viro" <viro@zeniv.linux.org.uk>
Subject: Re: rename("a", "b") would not always remove "a" on success. ?!!
Date: Sat, 29 Oct 2011 03:00:57 +0200 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <201110290300.57778.vda.linux@googlemail.com> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <4EAACD51.5060703@redhat.com>
On Friday 28 October 2011 17:42, Eric Blake wrote:
> On 10/28/2011 09:32 AM, Pádraig Brady wrote:
> >> http://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/9699919799/functions/rename.html
> >>
> >> 'If the old argument and the new argument resolve to either .... or different
> >> directory entries for the same existing file, rename() shall return
> >> successfully and perform no other action.'
> >>
> >> It's incredible they had audacity to put such nonsense into standard.
> >>
> >> The page says in "RATIONALE" section:
> >>
> >> 'The specification that if old and new refer to the same file is
> >> intended to guarantee that:
> >>
> >> rename("x", "x");
> >>
> >> does not remove the file.'
> >>
> >> Why didn't they just explicitly say that they actually want THIS
> >> particular case to work correctly, not OTHER cases to be fucked up?!
>
> Because it is historical precedent, and changing it now would break
> software that has come to expect this behavior on hard links.
There is centain level of absurdity, after which fixing a goof in standards
makes sense even if it theoretically can break some existing program.
In my opinion, the key word here is "theoritically".
Is there even one real-world program which depends on this?
I bet there is not.
--
vda
next prev parent reply other threads:[~2011-10-29 1:01 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 6+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2011-10-28 15:25 rename("a", "b") would not always remove "a" on success. ?!! Denys Vlasenko
2011-10-28 15:32 ` Pádraig Brady
2011-10-28 15:42 ` Eric Blake
2011-10-28 15:58 ` Eric Blake
2011-10-29 1:00 ` Denys Vlasenko [this message]
2011-10-29 1:19 ` richard -rw- weinberger
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