chris@umcp-cs.UUCP (Chris Torek) (01/16/85)
(I've deleted net.sources.bugs; it doesn't seem appropraite anymore)
The super-user is allowed to create links to directories in most (probably
all) versions of Unix. Until 4.2BSD, that was the ONLY way to make a new
directory: if you wanted to "mkdir foo", the procedure was
mknod "foo" as a directory
link "foo/." to "foo"
link "foo/.." to the directory in which foo was being made
This can still be done in 4.2, to maintain (a semblance of) backward
compatibility.
In order to un-make a botched directory link, you have to use the unlink
system call. Many systems now have a program (/etc/unlink) which just
"unlink"s its argument, to facilitate this.
--
(This line accidently left nonblank.)
In-Real-Life: Chris Torek, Univ of MD Comp Sci Dept (+1 301 454 7690)
UUCP: {seismo,allegra,brl-bmd}!umcp-cs!chris
CSNet: chris@umcp-cs ARPA: chris@maryland